One-pot synthesis of rugged PdRu nanosheets as the efficient catalysts for polyalcohol electrooxidation

Recently, intensive attention has been attracted to the two-dimensional metal nanosheets, owing to their excellent electrocatalytic performance for direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs). Herein, PdRu nanosheets have been synthesized successfully by a facile one-pot method. The rugged nanosheet structure provided plentiful surface active sites to enhance the electrocatalytic activity. Moreover, benefiting from the synergistic effect and improved electronic structure, PdRu NSs exhibited splendid electrocatalytic performance in ethylene glycol oxidation reaction (EGOR) and glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR). Specifically, the mass activity of PdRu NSs was 1.72 and 3.69 times over those of Pd NSs and Pd/C catalysts in EGOR. Moreover, PdRu NSs displayed the largest mass activity in GOR, 1.48 and 2.47 times as large as Pd NSs and Pd/C catalysts. The results of stability tests demonstrated that the durability of PdRu NSs was the highest among the obtained catalysts. This work plays a directive role on the in-depth engineering on Pd-based catalysts with nanosheet architectures.