Facile construction of fascinating trimetallic PdAuAg nanocages with exceptional ethylene glycol and glycerol oxidation activity

Abstract

Highly open metallic nanocages represent a novel class of nanostructures for advanced catalytic applications in direct liquid fuels cells due to their specific capability of providing easy access to reactants in both internal and external active sites and also desirable electronic structures for the adsorption of molecules, which render superior catalytic performances. However, to date, the rational design of trimetallic nanocages with tunable compositions remains a challenge. Herein, we demonstrate a facile method combining seed mediated and galvanic replacement for the preparation of unique trimetallic Pd–Au–Ag nanocages catalysts with tunable compositions. A series of controlled experiments reveal that the reaction time plays a crucial role in affecting the morphology of the final product. Importantly, the newly-generated Pd–Au–Ag nanocages are high-performance electrocatalysts for the oxidation of both ethylene glycol and glycerol with mass activities of 7578.2 and 5676.1 mA mg⁻¹, respectively, which are far superior to that of commercial Pd/C. We firmly believe that the strategy and enhanced electrocatalysts developed in this study can be well applied to boost the commercial development of fuel cell technologies.