Nanoporous palladium synthesised by dealloying Al₇₂Pd₂₀Mn₈ quasicrystal for electrochemical applications

ABSTRACT

A new sort of nanoporous palladium has been synthesised by electrochemical dealloying icosahedral Al₇₂Pd₂₀Mn₈ quasicrystal. A nanoporous cell-like pattern is formed in the dealloyed samples, with a mean pole size of 8 nm and a cell wall thickness of ∼ 5 nm. The quasicrystal grains decompose into randomly orientated FCC Pd(Al) nanocrystals in the initial stage of dealloying, which assumes a prior mechanism accounting for the final microstructure size. The nanoporous palladium exhibits evident electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of ethanol and methanol in alkaline environment, and demonstrates the possible application as a cathode material in Li-O₂ batteries.

KEYWORDS:

• Quasicrystals
• dealloying
• electrochemistry
• structural transitions

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National MCF R&D Program of China R&D Program of China (grant number 2019YFE03120004), the Basic and Applied Basic Research Major Programme of Guangdong Province, China (No. 2021B0301030003) and the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province (grant number 20180550766).