Bimetallic Gold-Palladium Nanoparticles: Applications in Methanol and Ethanol Oxidation Reactions

Abstract

The direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is a fuel cell technology capable of generating energy through the electrochemical oxidation of methanol. The methanol oxidation reaction (MOR), which occurs at the anode, is of interest for producing renewable energy. This process relies on precious metal catalysts to efficiently produce energy, namely nanoscale Pt-Ru. Current fuel cell technology is, therefore, expensive, and unsuitable for large-scale implementation. Palladium can act as an electrocatalyst for the process, similar to platinum. However, its monometallic form suffers from high overpotentials and significant poisoning by carbon monoxide (CO) generated in situ. Previous research has shown improved activity of palladium in alkaline electrolytes, which, while unsuitable for platinum, are known to enhance alcohol oxidation reaction kinetics through preferred oxidation of methanol. The addition of a secondary metal assists in both modulations of palladium-reactant binding strengths and co-catalyzed oxidation of CO when exposed to the surface. This article reviews the literature on DMFC and anode electrocatalysts. The current platinum catalysts and foundation knowledge of the mechanism of platinum are compared to current palladium catalysts. The requirements for new nanoscale palladium catalysts and background on their synthesis are outlined.

Recent advances in synthesis and characterization of iron–nickel bimetallic nanoparticles and their applications as photo-catalyst and fuel additive

“…23 The reduction rates of the two metal precursor ingredients can be controlled during synthesis to achieve the desired size, shape, structure, morphology, and metal distribution of the resulting bimetallic nanoparticles. 24,25 Various physical and chemical methods can be utilized to synthesize bimetallic nanoparticles, including deposition, coprecipitation, micro-emulsion, hydrothermal, hydrogen plasma reaction, sonochemical, and solvothermal methods. 26,27 Bimetallic nanoparticles are of great importance in elds such as electronics, photocatalysis, and metallic coating.…”