Tunable long-chains of core@shell PdAg@Pd as high-performance catalysts for ethanol oxidation

High performance nanomaterial catalysts have attracted great attention on the application for the direct alcohol fuel cell. To improve the catalytic behavior, it is a challenge to modulate the surface structure and morphology of catalysts. We integrated properties of advanced networks nanostructure and core@shell structure to form a series of PdAg@Pd worm-like networks catalysts. Importantly, the composition-optimized Pd₇₆Ag₂₄ WNWs exhibited excellent catalytic performance towards ethanol oxidation reaction compared to that of commercial Pd/C catalysts in alkaline media. The mass activity of Pd₇₆Ag₂₄ WNWs is 3.55 times higher than that of commercial Pd/C catalysts for EOR. Moreover, the Pd₇₆Ag₂₄ WNWs also showed superior stability after 250 successive cycles and kept far higher residual activities than that of the other catalysts. The synthesis of PdAg@Pd worm-like networks catalysts provides a reference to well combine the advantages of core@shell and networks structure to form high performance catalysts application for DEFC.