Facile Synthesis of a Porous Pd/Cu Alloy and its Enhanced Performance toward Methanol and Formic Acid Electrooxidation

Reported is a porous Pd/Cu alloy catalyst synthesized by a one-pot method, in which the Pd/Cu alloy is formed by using l-ascorbic acid as reducing agent to simultaneously reduce the copper precursor and the palladium precursor. The copper incorporated with Pd can reduce the cost of the catalyst and enhance the catalytic performance. The morphology of the Pd/Cu alloy catalyst can be controlled by altering the ratios of Pd to Cu. Electrochemical characterizations indicate that Pd/Cu alloy catalysts possess good activity and long-term stability for the electrooxidation of methanol and formic acid. Compared with commercial Pd/C, the as-prepared Pd65 Cu35 shows enhanced activities of electrooxidation of methanol and formic acid. This study highlights an easy strategy to obtain the shape-controlled Pd/Cu alloyed catalysts and their potential application as electrocatalysts in fuel cells or other fields.