Green synthesis of porous flower-like palladium with high electrocatalytic activity towards methanol oxidation

Using a Good's buffers, N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N′-2-ethanesulfonic acid (HEPES) both as reducing and shape-directing agent, porous Pd nanoflowers were facilely prepared with high-yield by one-pot chemical reduction method, which are preferentially growing along the (111) directions, without any seed or surfactant. It is found that the amount of the precursors, temperature and reaction time play important roles in this synthetic procedure. And the flower-like Pd nanostructures exhibit excellent electrocatalytic activity towards methanol oxidation in alkaline media with good stability, which show potential applications as an effective catalyst in direct methanol fuel cell.