Precisely Tuning the Surface Nanostructure of Ni@Pd Nanocatalysts for Enhanced Formic Acid Oxidation
Xiang Li, Junjun Zhang, Jingjing Dou, Mengyang Li, Xiaohua Feng, Ge Liu
Abstract
Abstract Constructing Ni@Pd nanocatalysts can effectively improve the catalytic efficiency of Pd atoms. However, it is difficult to grow Pd atoms uniformly on the Ni surface due to the large lattice mismatch between Ni and Pd. Herein, we demonstrate that the well‐defined Ni@Pd nanocatalysts can be obtained by the galvanic replacement reaction between Ni and Pd at room temperature. By simply regulating the content of Pd precursor in the galvanic replacement reaction, the atomic percentages of Pd can be controlled from 2 % to 9 %. In synthesized Ni@Pd nanocatalysts, the Ni@Pd 0.06 core‐shell nanocrystals show the highest mass activity (1186 mA mg Pd −1 ) and specific activity (4.21 mA cm −2 ), which are 5.6 times and 2.6 times higher than that of the commercial Pd/C nanocatalyst (212 mA mg Pd −1 , 1.60 mA cm −2 ). The enhanced performance is mainly attributed to the synergistic effect between Pd and Ni and the core‐shell nanostructure.