Synthesis of carbon supported palladium nanoparticles catalyst using a facile homogeneous precipitation-reduction reaction method for formic acid electrooxidation

A highly dispersed and ultrafine carbon supported Pd nanoparticles (Pd/C) catalyst is synthesized by a facile homogeneous precipitation-reduction reaction method. Under the appropriate pH conditions, [PdCl4]2− species in PdCl2 solution are slowly transformed into the insoluble palladium oxide hydrate (PdO·H2O) precipitation by heat treatment due to a slow hydrolysis reaction, which results in the generation of carbon supported PdO·H2O nanoparticles (PdO·H2O/C) sample with the high dispersion and small particle size. Consequently, a highly dispersed and ultrafine Pd/C catalyst can be synthesized by PdO·H2O → Pd0 in situ reduction reaction path in the presence of NaBH4. As a result, the resulting Pd/C catalyst possesses a significantly electrocatalytic performance for formic acid electrooxidation, which is attributed to the uniformly sized and highly dispersed nanostructure.