One-step synthesis of carbon-supported Pd-Pt alloy electrocatalysts for methanol tolerant oxygen reduction

A facile, one-step reduction route was developed to synthesize Pd-rich carbon-supported Pd-Pt alloy electrocatalysts of different Pd/Pt atomic ratios. As-prepared Pd-Pt/C catalysts exhibit a single phase fcc structure and an expansion lattice parameter. Comparison of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on the Pd-Pt/C alloy catalysts indicates that the Pd₃Pt₁/C bimetallic catalyst exhibits the highest ORR activity among all the Pd-Pt alloy catalysts and shows a comparative ORR activity with the commercial Pt/C catalyst. Moreover, all the Pd-Pt alloy catalysts exhibited much higher methanol tolerance during the ORR than the commercial Pt/C catalyst. High methanol tolerance of the Pd-Pt alloy catalysts could be attributed to the weak adsorption of methanol induced by the composition effect, to the presence of Pd atoms and to the formation of Pd-based alloys.