Facile Electro-Oxidation of Methanol at Pd-Au/C Nanocatalyst

In the current study, a cleaned glassy carbon (abbreviated as C) electrode was modified by the sequential electrodeposition of gold (AuNPs) and palladium (PdNPs) nanoparticles (denoted as Pd-Au/C) for the catalytic electro-oxidation of methanol (EOM). Interestingly, the catalyst showed a higher (~ 5 times increase) oxidation peak current, Ip, and a lower (~ 9 times decrease) charge transfer resistance (Rct) than the Au-unmodified Pd/C catalyst. This finding recommended the significant lowering of the catalyst’s surface poisoning together with enhanced charge transfer kinetics as the enhancement origin of EOM. Besides, the effects of NaOH concentration in the electrolyte and scan rate during oxidation were optimized to achieve an optimized EOM electrocatalysis.