Mesoporous carbon confined palladium–copper alloy composites for high performance nitrogen selective nitrate reduction electrocatalysis†
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Abstract
Palladium–copper (PdCu) alloy has been proved to be a promising electrocatalyst for the reduction of nitrate. The challenges, however, include how to design this catalyst with controllable particle sizes, uniform distribution, and avoiding the leakage and reducing the consumption of noble metals. Herein, we report the synthesis of a mesoporous carbon supported PdCu bimetallic electrocatalyst by using mesoporous silica SBA-15 as the hard template. The PdCu nanoparticles are uniformly embedded in the ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) framework (PdCu@OMC), leading to a high loading amount of PdCu alloy of ∼22.41 wt%, a large specific surface area of 1091 m2 g−1 and a pore volume of 0.74 cm3 g−1. Significantly, the resultant PdCu@OMC composites deliver superior electrocatalytic capability in 50 mL mixed solution (500 mg of nitric nitrogen per liter) under neutral conditions, with a nitrate conversion yield of 28.7% and a nitrogen selectivity of 74%.
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