Radiolysis-Assisted Direct Growth of Gold-Based Electrocatalysts for Glycerol Oxidation

The electrocatalytic oxidation of glycerol by metal electrocatalysts is an effective method of low-energy-input hydrogen production in membrane reactors in alkaline conditions. The aim of the present study is to examine the proof of concept for the gamma-radiolysis-assisted direct growth of monometallic gold and bimetallic gold–silver nanostructured particles. We revised the gamma radiolysis procedure to generate free-standing Au and Au-Ag nano- and micro-structured particles onto a gas diffusion electrode by the immersion of the substrate in the reaction mixture. The metal particles were synthesized by radiolysis on a flat carbon paper in the presence of capping agents. We have integrated different methods (SEM, EDX, XPS, XRD, ICP-OES, CV, and EIS) to examine in detail the as-synthesized materials and interrogate their electrocatalytic efficiency for glycerol oxidation under baseline conditions to establish a structure–performance relationship. The developed strategy can be easily extended to the synthesis by radiolysis of other types of ready-to-use metal electrocatalysts as advanced electrode materials for heterogeneous catalysis.