Newly developed stepwise electroless deposition enables a remarkably facile synthesis of highly active and stable amorphous Pd nanoparticle electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction.

This paper reports on highly active and stable amorphous Pd nanoparticle electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction. The amorphous catalysts were synthesized by a remarkably facile and quick electroless deposition process newly developed in this study (process time <5 min). An electrode substrate (glassy carbon, carbon cloth) was sequentially dipped for 10 s into two separate solutions of a reducing agent (sodium hypophosphite (NaH2PO2)) and Pd ions to deposit amorphous Pd nanoparticles containing phosphorus (Pd-P). By repeating the deposition cycles, the specific and mass activities of the Pd nanoparticles can be actively tuned. Owing to the nanoscale amorphous nature, the obtained Pd-P nanoparticle electrocatalysts exhibited superior specific and mass activities compared with crystalline Pd nanoparticles synthesized by another reducing agent (N2H4) and commercial Pt-loaded carbon (Pt/C) and Pd-loaded carbon (Pd/C). The specific and mass activities of the amorphous Pd-P nanoparticles were over 4.5 times and 2.6 times higher than previously reported values of Pd and Pt catalysts.