Metal and Metal Oxide Interaction in Hollow CuO/Pd Catalyst Boosting Ethanol Electrooxidation

A low Pd-loaded lychee-nut-like catalysts of CuO/Pd with hollow nanostructure are prepared by electrochemical displacement reaction, in which a Cu2O mesoporous sphere is as a sacrificial template in the presence of triblock copolymers Pluronic P123 (EO20PO70EO20). Furthermore, the feeding molar ratio of Cu2O and Na2PdCl4 is found to be critical factor for preparing well-defined hollow lychee-nut-like (HLN) CuO/Pd. Morphology, composition and crystal structure of the optimal HLN CuO/Pd catalysts are sufficiently characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The as-synthesized HLN CuO/Pd catalysts show high catalytic activity for ethanol oxidation in alkaline medium and the catalytic mass activity of the HLN CuO/Pd is 5.9-fold of commercial Pd/C and 10.8-fold of Pd black. In turn, HLN CuO/Pd catalysts possess outstanding stability and superior tolerance to CO species. The remarkably electrochemical catalysis performance of HLN CuO/Pd catalysts is attributed to the unique lychee-nut-like open nanostructures and the mutual interaction between Pd and CuO support, which optimizing the electronic structure. (C) 2020 The Electrochemical Society (ECS). Published on behalf of ECS by IOP Publishing Limited.