Bowl-Like and Apple-Like PdCu Hollow Microparticles with Mesoporous Nanoshells: Synthesis, Characterization, and Electrocatalytic Performance

Novel bowl-like, apple-like, and spherical PdCu alloy hollow microparticles with mesoporous nanoshells are synthesized through a simple disproportionation reaction route using a spherical Cu2O template with increasing H2PdCl4 ratio. The diameter of hollow particles is about 1 μm, and the thickness of mesoporous shells is about 50 nm. The obtained bowl-like PdCu alloy hollow microparticles with mesoporous nanoshells exhibit the highest electrocatalytic activity among the apple-like and spherical PdCu hollow microparticles and commercial Pd/C electrocatalysts toward methanol anodic oxidation for fuel cells. The remarkably excellent electrocatalytic performance of bowl-like PdCu alloy electrocatalysts might be attributed to the unique bowl-like hollow architecture with highly mesoporous nanoshells which are constructed by self-supported PdCu nanoparticles. The strategy presented here might help pave the way for the synthesis of novel nano-/microcomplex hollow materials with mesoporous nanoshells.