MOR Activity of a B-Doped Pd-Based Electrocatalyst

ABSTRAT

A series of B-doped Pd-based catalysts was synthesized via a chemical reduction method in this work. Through XRD and HRTEM characterization, the Pd-based catalyst was mainly composed of the Pd2B, PdO, and NiO nanoclusters, and they are intermingled with each other. Due to lattice defects and strain caused by the lattice connections formed between the different nanoclusters and the increased d-spacing of the surface Pd atoms and the electron transfer from B to Pd caused by the doped B atoms, the B-doped Pd-based catalyst exhibited good catalytic performance for the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). According to the corresponding CV data, the optimal Pd-based catalyst had a large electrochemical active surface area (ECSA) of 1895.2 cm2 mg–1 Pd and an excellent MOR activity of 1839.1 mA mg–1 Pd in a 0.1 M KOH + 1 M CH3OH solution at a scan rate of 50 mV s–1. Furthermore, the kinetics investigation revealed that the MOR on the Pd-Ni-B-O/C catalyst was a diffusion-controlled process, and the utilization level of its ECSA for the MOR was only 0.265%, implying that its electrocatalytic activity could be significantly promoted.