Trimetallic (aurod-pdshell-ptcluster) catalyst used as amperometric hydrogen peroxide sensor

Area of Science:

• Nanomaterials Science
• Catalysis
• Electrochemistry

Background:

• Bimetallic nanostructured core-shell materials are widely employed as catalysts.
• Tailoring catalytic properties and enhancing activity can be achieved by incorporating additional metallic components.

Purpose of the Study:

• To fabricate and characterize a novel tri-metallic catalytic structure.
• To evaluate the catalytic performance and sensing capabilities of the synthesized trimetallic nanostructure.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a tri-metallic catalyst with clustered platinum on a palladium shell supported on a gold core.
• Electrochemical characterization including electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) analysis.
• Hydrogen peroxide sensing protocol to determine catalyst sensitivity and linear range.

Main Results:

• The trimetallic catalyst (Au-Pd-Pt) exhibited a significantly higher ECSA (1883.0 cm(2)/mgPt) compared to bimetallic (Au-Pt, 1371.7 cm(2)/mgPt) and monometallic (Pt, 879 cm(2)/mgPt) counterparts.
• The trimetallic catalyst demonstrated high sensitivity (604 μA/mMcm(2)) in hydrogen peroxide sensing within a broad linear range (0.0013-6.191 mM).

Conclusions:

• The addition of a third metallic component (platinum clusters) to a bimetallic core-shell structure (gold core-palladium shell) enhances catalytic performance.
• The fabricated trimetallic nanostructure shows great potential for sensitive and reliable electrochemical sensing applications, specifically for hydrogen peroxide detection.