Facile Fabrication of Porous Pd-Au Bimetallic Nanostructures for Electrocatalysis

Fabrication of Pd-Au bimetallic nanostructures is of special significance due to their unique physicochemical properties and broad industrial applications. Here we report a simple route to create a class of Pd-Au bimetallic nanostructures via chemical plating an ultrathin Pd layer onto nanoporous gold (NPG). The structures and surface properties of the obtained products were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), UV-vis spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and electrochemical techniques. Pd was found to grow epitaxially over the NPG surface, forming core-shell-type porous nanocomposites. These materials possess some interesting electrochemical behaviors and are highly active toward formic acid electrooxidation.