Combining Bismuth Telluride and Palladium for High Efficiency Glycerol Electrooxidation

Designing high-performance anodic catalysts to drive glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR) is essential for advancing direct alcohol fuel cells. Coupling Pd with oxophilic materials is an effective strategy to enhance its intrinsic catalytic activity. In this study, we successfully synthesized Pd/Bi₂Te₃ catalysts with tunable compositions, using Bi₂Te₃ as a novel promoter, and applied them to the GOR for the first time. Electrocatalytic tests revealed that the activity of the Pd/Bi₂Te₃ catalysts was closely linked to their compositions. Among these catalysts, the optimized Pd/Bi₂Te₃-20 % showed potential to replace the commercial Pd/C catalyst, exhibiting a peak current density 5.2 times higher than that of the benchmark Pd/C catalyst. Furthermore, improved catalytic stability and faster catalytic kinetics were observed for Pd/Bi₂Te₃-20 %. The synergistic effect between Pd and Bi₂Te₃ is responsible for the high performance of the Pd/Bi₂Te₃-20 % catalyst.