Employing iron and nickel to enhance ethanol oxidation of Pd-based anodes in alkaline medium

We report the addition of Fe or Ni to Pd:M electrocatalysts supported on Vulcan carbon XC-72 with 20 wt% metal loading to activate ethanol electrooxidation reaction in alkaline medium. Experimental bulk compositions of nanoparticles were very close to the nominal one. All the catalysts display the fcc crystalline structure of palladium with crystallite sizes ranging from 2.5 nm to 5.4 nm. Electrochemical tests in the presence of ethanol shows that the addition of Fe and Ni to Pd catalysts enhances ethanol electrooxidation. Ni-containing compositions such as Pd(56)Ni(44) and Pd(71)Ni(29) exhibit excellent catalytic mass activity (30 A gPd−1) at 0.5 V vs. RHE showing that they are promising anode electrocatalysts for direct ethanol alkaline fuel cells.