Preparation of carbon-supported Pd-decorated PtCu nanoparticles towards formic acid oxidation reaction

This work reports the synthesis of a novel carbon-supported Pd-decorated PtCu nanocatalyst for formic acid oxidation. Without using surfactants or polymers, PtCu alloy was firstly prepared through simply co-reduction of Pt and Cu ions using ethylene glycol and sodium citrate as the reducing and stabilizing reagents. Then, Pd was decorated on the surface of PtCu through spontaneous replacement of Cu by Pd. XRD results suggest that the lattice parameters of the PtCu and Pd-decorated PtCu nanoparticles are smaller than that of Pt. TEM images show that all metallic nanoparticles are well dispersed on the carbon surface. The average particle size of the Pd-decorated PtCu nanoparticles is 2.9 nm. Electrochemical analysis suggests that the carbon-supported Pd-decorated PtCu nanocatalyst exhibits an enhanced activity for formic acid oxidation in comparison with the carbon-supported Pt and carbon-supported PtCu, as well as a high stability in acidic medium.