Key Words:ALLOY

Abstract:Electro-oxidation of ethanol, as the anodic reaction of direct ethanol fuel cells, is crucial for discharging performance. However, the kinetics of C-C bond cleavage in ethanol is very sluggish at low temperatures, due to the lack of efficient electrocatalysts. In this work, a unique tensile-strained defect-rich PdCo bimetallene nanoribbons (PdCo BNRs) is constructed, which exhibits a graphene-like nanoribbon structure with ultrathin thickness and abundant structural defects. As expected, the optimized PdCo BNRs exhibits an excellent ethanol oxidation activity (1.47 A mg- 1) as well as a super C-C bond cleavage capability and high selectivity for C1 products (49.2 %), compared with Pd metallene nanoribbons and commercial Pd black. Density functional theory calculations combined with in-situ electrochemical Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy show that the highly oxygenophilic Co and the unique tensile strain effect effectively upshift the d-band center of Pd to promote the adsorption of *OH, and most of all, significantly lower the activation energy barriers for C-C bond cleavage and accelerate the oxidation of CO*. This work not only provides an effective strategy for optimization of electron configuration of metallene nanoribbons, but also provides guidance for the rational design of efficient catalysts for C-C bond cleavage in ethanol oxidation reaction.

Volume:515

Issue:

Translation or Not:no