Preparation and characterization of bimetallic Pd–Zn nanoparticles on carbon for borohydride electrooxidation

Herein, Pd and a series of PdZn bimetallic nanoparticles supported on Vulcan XC-72 carbon were prepared by ultrasound-assisted NaBH4 impregnation-reduction method for the oxidation reaction of BH4- (BOR). The physical properties of the electrocatalysts were identified by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry techniques. The electrochemical properties were characterized by cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). The results were indicated uniformly dispersed PdZn nanoparticles on carbon with an average particle size of 5 nm. The number of electrons calculated from LSV data was found to be in the range of 3.0-3.5. Among all the prepared catalysts, PdZn-01/C exhibited the highest current density (1818 mA mg(Pd)(-1)) and stability towards BOR.