Palladium–nickel nanoparticles loaded on multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified with β-cyclodextrin for electrooxidation of alcohols

β-Cyclodextrin (β-CD) was grafted to the surface of multi-walled carbon tubes (MWCNTs) immobilized on Ti plates to obtain the β-CD-MWCNT/Ti electrode by using the self-assembly method. Binary Pd–Ni nanoparticles were then electrodeposited on the β-CD-MWCNT/Ti to synthesize the PdNi/β-CD-MWCN/Ti electrode. As a comparison, PdNi/MWCNT/Ti and PdNi/Ti electrodes were also prepared under the same condition. SEM images show that compared to the PdNi/MWCNT/Ti and PdNi/Ti, the binary PdNi nanoparticles on the β-CD-MWCNT/Ti are more highly dispersed with smaller sizes of 90–130 nm. Electrocatalytic activity of the as-synthesized electrodes towards electrooxidation of ethanol, propanol and butanol in alkaline media was investigated. Results show that the PdNi/β-CD-MWCNT/Ti electrode exhibits very high electroactivity for the alcohol oxidations and presents much enhanced performance compared with other two electrodes. Among the three alcohols, ethanol displays the greatest activity with the highest oxidation current density while butanol shows the lowest oxidation current density.