A Facile Preparation of Sandwich-Structured Pd/Polypyrrole-Graphene/Pd Catalysts for Formic Acid Electro-Oxidation

Direct formic acid fuel cells (DFAFCs) are one of the most promising power sources due to its high conversion efficiency; relatively low carbon emissions, toxicity, and flammability; convenience; low-cost storage transportation. However, key challenge large-scale commercial applications is poor performance catalyst’s preparation cost. In this study, a new sandwich-structured Pd/polypyrrole-graphene/Pd (Pd/PPy-Gns/Pd)-modified glassy electrode (GCE) was prepared using simple constant potential (CP) electrodeposition technique. On basis unique synthetic procedure structural advantages, Pd/PPy-Gns/Pd shows fast charge/mass transport rate, electrocatalytic activity, great stability for electro-oxidation (FAO). The mass activity reaches 917 mA·mg−1Pd. excellent catalytic mainly uniform embedding Pd nanoparticles on polypyrrole-graphene (PPy-Gns) support, which exposes more active sites, prevents shedding inactivation nanoparticles. At same time, introduction graphene (Gns) in PPy further improved conductivity catalyst accelerated transfer electrons.