Synergistic electrocatalysis of palladium-nickel (Pd7Ni3) alloy and multifunctional polyaniline for highly efficient oxidations of ethylene glycol and ethanol

The rational integration of support structures and alloying strategies is crucial for developing highly active and durable catalysts to advance fuel cell technology. This study presents a polyaniline-supported palladium-nickel alloy catalyst (Pd 7 Ni 3 -PANI) with an electronic structure modulated by synergistic metal-support interaction and lattice strain and shows significantly enhanced electrocatalytic performance for ethylene glycol and ethanol oxidation (EGOR/EOR). For EGOR/EOR, the Pd 7 Ni 3 -PANI catalyst shows mass/specific activities (5396/2541 mA mg Pd -1 , 33/15 mA cm −2 ), surpassing those of commercial Pd/C (724/565 mA mg Pd -1 , 12/9 mA cm −2 ). Moreover, Pd 7 Ni 3 -PANI also demonstrates superior CO tolerance and electrochemical stability. These improvements are attributed to the oxyphilic Ni facilitates the generation of hydroxyl (OH – ) to accelerate CO oxidation, while simultaneously optimizing the electronic state of Pd to regulate the adsorption of reaction intermediates. This work provides a new strategy for designing cost-effective and efficient anode electrocatalysts.