Palygorskite Hybridized Carbon Nanocomposite as a High-Performance Electrocatalyst Support for Formic Acid Oxidation

Abstract

A nanocomposite, in which acid-treated palygorskite was hybridized with carbon, was prepared and designed as an efficient support for electrocatatlysts. Pd nanoparticles were deposited on the hybrid support as an electrocatalyst for formic acid oxidation. The hybrid supports and electrocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).TEM and XRD results showed that acid treatment had an effective impact on the morphology of palygorskite, but did not destroy its architecture. XPS results indicated that the introduction of palygorskite resulted in a negative shift of binding energy of Pd deposited on it. The electrochemical results showed that the addition of palygorskite into the carbon facilitated the formation of OH_ads or O_ads on the surface of Pd/C-PLS, and further improved the formic acid electrooxidation activity. Therefore, considerable improvements in electrocatalytic activity toward formic acid oxidation was achieved by using this hybrid support when compared with conventional carbon support, suggesting that the introduction of SiO_2-based porous palygoriskite was an excellent and cost-efficient way to improve the electrocatalytic performance of carbon support.

KEYWORDS Palygorskite, electrocatalyst, composite support, formic acid electrooxidation.