Defective PdRh bimetallic nanocrystals enable enhanced methanol electrooxidation

Abstract Although PdRh-based bimetallic nanocrystals have been demonstrated as effective catalysts for methanol electrooxidation, the impact of introduced Rh on CO poisoning resistance and consequently the catalytic activity is still lacking in-depth studies. In this work, defective PdRh bimetallic nanocrystals (PdRh NAs) with different composition ratios are synthesized. The prepared Pd3Rh1 NAs exhibit much higher peak current density and greater durability in comparison with the control sample of Pd1Rh1 NAs, Pd5Rh1 NAs, and the Commercial Pd/C. In addition, we observe that the introduced suitable amount of Rh plays a critical role in promoting the activity and stability of PdRh NAs for methanol electrooxidation reaction (MOR). This work provides an advanced MOR catalyst, and highlights that modulating both surface structure and chemical composition of catalysts is an effective route to realize catalytic property optimization.