Fabrication of polyoxometalate-modified palladium–nickel/reduced graphene oxide alloy catalysts for enhanced oxygen reduction reaction activity

Designing advanced nanocatalysts for effectively catalyzing the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is of great importance for practical applications of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). In this work, the reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-supported palladium–nickel (Pd–Ni/rGO) alloy modified by the novel polyoxometalate (POM) with Keggin structure (Pd–Ni/rGO-POM) is efficiently fabricated via an impregnation technique. The physical characterizations such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), field emission scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (FESEM-EDX), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are utilized to confirm the structure, morphology, and chemical composition of the fabricated samples. The XRD results verify the formation of the POM-modified Pd(8)Ni(2)/rGO alloy electro-catalyst with the face-centered-cubic (fcc) structure and average crystallite size of 5.54 nm. The electro-catalytic activities of the nanocatalysts towards ORR in alkaline conditions are evaluated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), rotating disk electrode (RDE), and chronoamperometry (CA) analyses. The synthesized Pd(8)Ni(2)/rGO-POM nanomaterial shows remarkably greater ORR catalytic activity and better methanol resistance compared with the Pd(8)Ni(2)/rGO and Pd/rGO electro-catalysts. The promoted ORR activity of the Pd(8)Ni(2)/rGO-POM sample is attributed to the alloying of Pd and Ni components, the uniform scattering of Pd–Ni nanoparticles on rGO, and the alloyed catalyst being modified with POM. Moreover, these findings demonstrate that the resultant Pd(8)Ni(2)/rGO-POM material is attractive as a suitable and cost-effective cathodic catalyst for DMFCs, in which the decorated POMs play a vital role for the enhancement in the catalytic abilities of the nanocatalyst.