Construction of Pd-Zn dual sites to enhance the performance for ethanol electro-oxidation reaction
Authors: Jian Zhang
Haolin Tang
Qingqing Chen
Qi Xu
Youqi Zhu
Wenming Sun
Dingsheng Wang
Jiaqiang Sun
Jing Jin
Zedong Zhang
Yajun Qiu
Aijuan Han
Yadong Li
Ge Meng
Lin Gu
Journal: Nature Communications (2021)
Discipline: Multidisciplinary
Keywords: Rational design; synthesis; electrocatalysts; ethanol oxidation; Pd-Zn dual sites
Affiliations: Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China., College of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. ., State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China., State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China., State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China., Key Laboratory of Functional Molecular Solids, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui, China., College of Science, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China. ., College of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China., Research Center of Materials Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China., Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China., Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. .

Abstract:  Rational design and synthesis of superior electrocatalysts for ethanol oxidation is crucial to practical applications of direct ethanol fuel cells. Here, we report that the construction of Pd-Zn dual sites with well exposure and uniformity can significantly improve the efficiency of ethanol electro-oxidation. Through synthetic method control, Pd-Zn dual sites on intermetallic PdZn nanoparticles, Pd-Pd sites on Pd nanoparticles and individual Pd sites are respectively obtained on the same N-doped carbon coated ZnO support. Compared with Pd-Pd sites and individual Pd sites, Pd-Zn dual sites display much higher activity for ethanol electro-oxidation, exceeding that of commercial Pd/C by a factor of ~24. Further computational studies disclose that Pd-Zn dual sites promote the adsorption of ethanol and hydroxide ion to optimize the electro-oxidation pathway with dramatically reduced energy barriers, leading to the superior activity. This work provides valuable clues for developing high-performance ethanol electro-oxidation catalysts for fuel cells. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 In supplementary Figure S23, the Pd 3d XPS spectra for the before and after stability test is totally the same., even the noise patterns. Can the author explain how the duplication happened? ![file] , 
 We sincerely appreciate you for careful reading. When we know about this issue, we immediately check our raw data of this figure. We find out that the raw XPS data of the catalyst after the stability test indeed differs from the one before the stability test (the raw data is present in the attachments), although the binding energy of Pd 3d signal keeps similar. The totally same signals in the figure are attributed to our carelessness of copying the data before the stability test twice instead of the data after the stability test in the Origin and plotting them together, which we have never found out even during the publication (the project file from Origin is also present in the attachments). The corrected figure is displayed as below, and we have contacted the Nature Communication for correction. Once again, thank you very much for pointing out such serious mistake to us, and we feel really sorry for our carelessness during the data processing.(Attachment: Link:https: pan.baidu.com s 1KMjzFZ7jVpcFigCwMw9boQ Keyuff1axmaw)![file] ,