Electrochemical study of carbon dioxide reduction at copper-palladium nanoparticles: Influence of the bimetallic composition in the CO poisoning tolerance

International audienceA study of the CO2 electrochemical reduction reaction (CO2RR) at Pd100-xCux solid solution type nanoalloys is presented. Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry are used in combination with a cavity microelectrode (CME) for the first time. Low-distorted voltammetric signals obtained with the CME evidence that for alloys with low or moderate Cu content (up to 50 at.%) the typical CO2RR inhibition peak, related t

Cavity microelectrodes for the voltammetric investigation of electrocatalysts : the electroreduction of volatile organic halides on micro-sized silver powders

In this work the use of cavity-microelectrodes is described for the study of the electrocatalytic properties of silver powders in the electroredn. of trichloromethane, taken as model compd. The key role played by the Ag surface status has driven the research towards the use of micro- and nanosized materials, whose exploitation requires the full understanding of the complex behavior of multiphasial interfaces, and the development of the appropriate investigation methodologies. Moreover, comparison with electrodeposited silver macroelectrodes demonstrates the advantages of using cavity-microelectrodes, esp. in terms of improvement of the electrocatalytic activity, insignificance of ohmic drop and double layer capacitance in the voltammetric response, and simplicity offered by the exptl. procedure for renovating the electrode material and surface

Elaboration of Si supported PdCu nanoelectrocatalysts for the solar driven CO2 conversion

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Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching for the Direct Synthesis of Bimetallic Cu-Pd Nanoparticles on Silicon

An original study is presented for the synthesis of Cu100-xPdx nanoparticles directly on silicon by Metal Assisted Chemical Etching (MACE). CuPd is chosen as a representative bimetallic system on account of its interest and potential applications in catalysis and electrocatalysis, among others. The proposed methodology allows precise control of the nanoparticle bimetallic composition and structure. Thus, we demonstrate that Cu100-xPdx solid solutions and phase-separated nanoparticles can be synthesized at will by simply changing the deposition conditions. In-depth physical characterization of the synthesized material (structure, morphology, composition, oxidation state and d-band center position) is carried out by XRD, SEM-EDX and XPS. Finally, band bending simulations at the nanoscale in combination with electrochemical measurements help to interpret some of the peculiarities of the Pd, Cu and CuxPd100-x deposits. The new method can be easily implemented, used for various silicon substrate geometries and extended to any bimetallic system whose metals are suitable for MACE of silicon

Nanoparticles on p-type Silicon as Catalysts for the Photoelectrochemical CO2 Conversion

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