From bimetallic PdCu nanowires to ternary PdCu-SnO2 nanowires: Interface control for efficient ethanol electrooxidation

At present, although a large number of palladium-based nanowire electrocatalysts have been prepared, there are few reports on nanowires containing rich metal oxides . Herein, porous PdCu alloy nanowires and PdCu-SnO 2 nanowires were prepared by using a galvanic displacement synthesis method. Due to their one-dimensional structure, rough surfaces with non-homogeneous edges, electronic effect, and the advanced PdCu/SnO 2 interface of the as-synthesized PdCu-SnO 2 nanowire catalysts, they exhibited a mass activity of 7770.0 mA mg −1 towards ethanol oxidation , which was 7.6-fold higher than that of Pd/C catalysts (1025.0 mA mg −1 ). In addition, they behaved strong durability upon chronoamperometry and continuous cyclic voltammetry tests. The electrochemical measurements demonstrated that SnO 2 was introduced into the PdCu/SnO 2 interface, which promoted the oxidation of ethanol at a lower potential and accelerated the oxidation of Pd-CO ads via SnO 2 -OH ads to regenerate the active sites. This research highlights the significance of introducing metal oxides into the nanostructure interface, and the performance of Pd-containing catalysts towards ethanol oxidation reaction was greatly improved.