Highly dispersed carbon-supported Pd nanoparticles catalyst synthesized by novel precipitation–reduction method for formic acid electrooxidation

Abstract The highly dispersed and ultrafine carbon-supported Pd nanoparticles (Pd/C) catalyst is synthesized by using an improved precipitation–reduction method, which involves in Pd II  → PdO·H 2 O → Pd 0 reaction path. In the method, palladium oxide hydrate (PdO·H 2 O) nanoparticles (NPs) with high dispersion is obtained easily by adjusting solution pH in the presence of 1,4-butylenediphosphonic acid (H 2 O 3 P-(CH 2 ) 4 -PO 3 H 2 , BDPA). After NaBH 4 reduction, the resulting Pd/C catalyst possesses high dispersion and small particle size. As a result, the electrochemical measurements indicate that the resulting Pd/C catalyst exhibits significantly high electrochemical active surface area and high electrocatalytic performance for formic acid electrooxidation compared with that prepared by general NaBH 4 reduction method.