Ultrafine FePd Nanoalloys Decorated Multiwalled Cabon Nanotubes toward Enhanced Ethanol Oxidation Reaction

Abstract

Ultrafine iron-palladium (FePd) nanoalloys deposited on γ-Fe2O3, FePd-Fe2O3, further anchored on carboxyl multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs-COOH), FePd-Fe2O3/MWNTs, were successfully synthesized by a facile one-pot solution based method as thermally decomposing palladium acetylacetonate (Pd(acac)2) and iron pentacarbonyl (Fe(CO)5) in a refluxing dimethylformamide solution in the presence of MWNTs-COOH. A 3.65 fold increase of peak current density was observed in cyclic voltammetry (CV) for ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) compared with that of Pd/MWNTs after normalizing to Pd mass. The greatly enhanced tolerance stability toward poisoning species and largely reduced charge transfer resistance were also obtained in chronoamperometry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy due to the downward shifted d-band center of FePd alloy, easily formed oxygen containing species on Fe2O3, and the stabilizing role of the MWNTs.