Nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets supported assembled Pd nanoflowers for efficient ethanol electrooxidation

Electrocatalyzing ethanol oxidation to convert chemical energy into electrical energy is significant for alleviating the energy crisis and environmental pollution but still challenging because of the lack of highly efficient and low-cost catalysts. Herein, we report the design and fabrication of an advanced nanocatalyst constructed by uniformly distributing 3D palladium nanoflowers (NFs) on the surface of nitrogen-doped graphene (NG). Impressively, taking advantages of the morphological and structural advantages, the as-obtained Pd NFs/NG with high surface area can display greatly improved electrocatalytic activity for ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) in alkaline media. More importantly, the introduction of NG support renders this composite high conductivity and fast electron transport, resulting in a large promotion in electrocatalytic activity and stability. This work provides facile synthetic concept to build multi-dimensional composite catalysts with synergetic enhancement effects for wide electrocatalytic reactions.