Construction of Multiphase Concave Tetrahedral PdInMo Nanocatalyst for Enhanced Alcohol Oxidation

Abstract Heterogeneous palladium‐based catalysts show excellent catalytic properties for electrocatalytic oxidation of alcohols, but the construction of such heterogeneous catalysts is a challenge. Here, a multiphase tetrahedral PdInMo nanocatalyst is prepared by a one‐pot reaction method. And the multiphase tetrahedral PdInMo nanocatalyst consists of a face‐centered cubic structure and an intermetallic structure. Due to the oxygen affinity of indium and molybdenum atoms, the interface defects of internal multiphase structure, and intermetallic structure, the multiphase concave tetrahedral PdInMo nanocatalyst shows enhanced catalytic efficiency in the electrocatalytic oxidation reaction of methanol and ethanol. Compared with commercial Pd/C catalysts, PdIn 0.117 Mo 0.037 nanocatalyst has the best mass activity and specific activity. In electrocatalysis of methanol oxidation, the mass activity (2205.57 mA mg Pd −1 ) and specific activity (6.67 mA cm −2 ) are 4.81 and 3.40 times than that of a commercial Pd/C nanocatalyst (458.5 mA mg Pd −1 , 1.96 mA cm −2 ), respectively. In the electrocatalysis of ethanol oxidation, the mass activity (2668.49 mA mg Pd −1 ) and specific activity (8.11 mA cm −2 ) are 4.06 and 3.14 times than that of the commercial Pd/C nanocatalyst (655.83 mA mg Pd −1 , 2.58 mA cm −2 ), respectively. This study provides a reference for the design of highly efficient palladium catalysts for alcohol oxidation.