Shaped Control Synthesis of Pd-Ni Nanoparticles for Alkaline Hydrogen Oxidation Reaction for Fuel Cells

Bimetallic nanoparticles present an important class of nanocatalysts, due to their synergistic effect of contribution of two different metals to the catalytic properties. Hydrogen Oxidation Reaction (HOR) in the anodic side of alkaline exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFC’s) has kinetic barrier and therefore slow kinetic even for the Platinum catalyst, known as the best catalyst for the fuel cells. Using of bimetallic nanoparticles with addition of abundant metal not only reduce the amount of noble precious metal, but also can improve the catalytic properties. In previous reported work of Pd-Ni bimetallic nanoparticles present a favorable metal-metal interaction of palladium and nickel, which increased the HOR kinetic compared to the Pd using alone.[1] The catalytic activity of the particles depends on the composition, size and shape. Different shapes exposed different facets (hkl) which have different atomic arrangements in their surface layers. These arrangements can lead to the variation in adsorption energy of reactants or intermediates in heterogeneous catalysis.

In this work, we demonstrate a synthesis of bimetallic Pd-Ni nanoparticles on carbon support and without carbon, with using of Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as surface stabilizer agent. Pd(acac)₂ and Ni(acac)₂ were utilized as precursors. As a result we obtain triangles and unidentified shapes of nanoparticles in the average size of 10 nm. Electrocatalytic activity in HOR of the Pd-Ni electrodes was measured in alkaline solution by rotating disc electrode method.

[1] M. Alesker, M. Page, M. Shviro, Y. Paska, G. Gershinsky, D. R. Dekel, and D. Zitoun, “Palladium / nickel bifunctional electrocatalyst for hydrogen oxidation reaction in alkaline membrane fuel cell,” J. Power Sources, vol. 304, pp. 332–339, 2016.