Deposition of palladium submonolayer on nanoporous gold film and investigation of its performance for the methanol electrooxidation reaction

The electrocatalytic activity of nanoporous gold film (NPGF) toward methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) upon Pd deposition is studied. PdθNPGFs (where, θ stands for the surface coverage of Pd on NPGF: 0.07, 0.19, 0.37 and 0.59) are prepared via surface engineering of NPGF using underpotential deposition (UPD) and galvanic replacement method. M images confirm that the NPGF retains its high porosity after surface covering with different amounts of Pd. EDX data also present the rising trends of Cu and consequently, Pd amounts by increasing θ. The PdθNPGFs exhibit superior electrocatalytic activity compared to PdbulkNPGF and PdbulkCuNPGF, which approach a maximum efficiency for Pd0.59NPGF. PdbulkCuNPGF also shows an enhanced electrocatalytic activity compared to PdbulkNPGF.