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Shape-dependence in seeded-growth of Pd-Cu solid solution from Pd nanostructure towards methanol oxidation electrocatalyst

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Abstract

Ultrathin Pd nanosheets (NSs) have great advantages in catalysis due to their large specific surface area and high percentage of under-coordinated atoms. However, the electrochemical performance still can be improved via composition-controllable growth of their solid solution. Herein, seeded alloying strategy was proposed to synthesize Pd-Cu solid solution from Pd NSs and Pd-Cu nanostructures with tunable molar ratios obtained by changing the amount of Cu precursor. As compared to the pristine Pd NSs, the Pd-Cu solid solution shows significantly enhanced methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) performance over those of Pd NSs and homemade Pd/C as the incorporation of Cu weakens the adsorption of CO intermediate on Pd in the MOR process. The choice of template is pivotal to the growth, as a shape-dependent behavior could be identified in the alloying of Cu with Pd nanosheets enclosed by {111} and {100} facets, Pd nanocubes enclosed by {100} facet, and Pd nano-tetrahedrons enclosed by {111} facet. The Pd-Cu solid solution with tunable composition can only be obtained from Pd NSs and the shape-dependent alloying process is mainly determined by the diffusion barrier and the minimum diffusion depth of the different facets.

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Acknowledgements

This work was accomplished under the support of National Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin, China (No. 22175127) and Institute of Energy, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center (No. 19KZS207).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Lianxi Si, Mengmeng Yao, Yuanyuan Shao & Jesse Zhu

  2. Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Hui Li, Yu Zhang, Donghao Zhang & Shi Hu

  3. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China

    Xiaowei An

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  1. Lianxi Si
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Correspondence to Shi Hu.

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Shape-dependence in seeded-growth of Pd-Cu solid solution from Pd nanostructure towards methanol oxidation electrocatalyst

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Si, L., Li, H., Zhang, Y. et al. Shape-dependence in seeded-growth of Pd-Cu solid solution from Pd nanostructure towards methanol oxidation electrocatalyst. Nano Res. 16, 9116–9124 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5741-8

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