Combining the core-shell construction with an alloying effect for high efficiency ethanol electrooxidation
Danye Liu, Qing Zeng, Hui Liu, Chaoquan Hu, Dong Chen, Lin Xu, Jun Yang
Abstract
Combining core-shell construction with an alloying effect is effective for optimizing the electronic and lattice strain effects for achieving highly catalytic efficiency for a given electrochemical reaction. Here, we report the use of core-shell [email protected] nanoparticles with an Au core and a sub-nano FePd alloy shell to demonstrate this concept. The Au core modifies the electronic configuration of Pd atoms, while the Fe component in thin shells reduces the lattice expansion of Pd induced by the Au core, both of which endow the Pd shell with an appropriate d-band center, favorable for the electrooxidation of ethanol through the C1 pathway. In particular, the as-prepared core-shell [email protected] nanoparticles at an optimized Fe:Pd ratio exhibit a mass activity of 13.3 A mg−1 and a specific activity of 20.2 mA cm−2 for the ethanol electrooxidation in an alkaline medium, which outperform those of a majority of the recently reported Pd-based electrocatalysts.