Catalytic behavior of a palladium doped binder free paper based cobalt electrode in electroreduction of hydrogen peroxide

Abstract A piece of flexible and conductive A4 paper is prepared by coating a layer of graphite with a normal 8B pencil. Then, Co nano-plates and Pd are assembled by a simple electrodeposition and chemical-reduction methods on the surface of the electrified paper, respectively. The as-prepared paper substrate/graphite-Co film-Pd (PG-CoPd) electrode is characterized by scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer, transmission electron microscope and X-ray diffractometer. The catalytic activity of the PG-CoPd electrode for H 2 O 2 electroreduction is investigated by means of cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The preparation process of the PG-CoPd electrode does not use any binder and it exhibits a three dimensional (3D) nano structure, high stability and good electric conductivity. The mass of the Pd in PG-CoPd is about 0.0535 mg cm −2 and the reduction current density reaches to −4.30 A cm −2  mg −1 in 1 mol dm −3 NaOH and 1.4 mol dm −3 H 2 O 2 at −0.5 V, which is higher than our previous reports of Au/Pd modified Co electrode.