skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Trends in Formic Acid Electro-Oxidation on Transition Metals Alloyed with Platinum and Palladium

Journal Article · · Journal of Physical Chemistry. C

Direct formic acid fuel cells (DFAFCs) have emerged as a promising power source to meet increased demands for alternative energy sources in the transportation and portable energy storage sectors. Furthermore, these fuel cells utilize formic acid (FA), a nontoxic and carbon-neutral fuel when produced from biomass or via CO2 reduction. Despite the promise of DFAFCs, the best monometallic catalysts, platinum and palladium, are poisoned by CO through the indirect oxidation pathway and require large overpotentials. By alloying Pt and Pd with other metals, we aim to improve both the activity and selectivity of these catalysts. Here, we present a systematic density functional theory (GGA-PW91) study of FA electro-oxidation (FAO) on the (111) facet of bimetallic Pt (Pt3M) or Pd (Pd3M) catalysts (M = Au, Ag, Cu, Pt, Pd, Ir, Rh, Ru, or Re) to evaluate the catalytic performance of these surfaces. For each surface, we calculate free energy diagrams and onset potentials of three key reaction mechanisms: direct oxidation of FA via carboxyl (COOH), direct oxidation of FA via formate (HCOO), and the indirect oxidation of FA that first forms CO en route to full oxidation to CO2. We then display the trends in the form of phase diagrams that compare the activity of the calculated surfaces against regions of high activity using the free energies of adsorbed CO and OH as descriptors, enabling high-throughput screening and design of improved catalysts, particularly those alloying Pt or Pd with Ir, Ru, or Re.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-05ER15731; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1876057
Journal Information:
Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Vol. 126, Issue 9; ISSN 1932-7447
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (73)

Graphene Decorated with PtAu Alloy Nanoparticles: Facile Synthesis and Promising Application for Formic Acid Oxidation journal March 2011
Synthesis, Characterization, and Electrocatalytic Activity of PtBi Nanoparticles Prepared by the Polyol Process journal November 2005
Application of In-situ Attenuated Total Reflection-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy for the Understanding of Complex Reaction Mechanism and Kinetics: Formic Acid Oxidation on a Pt Film Electrode at Elevated Temperatures journal May 2006
Electrocatalysis of formic acid on palladium and platinum surfaces: from fundamental mechanisms to fuel cell applications journal January 2014
Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Ammonia on Transition-Metal Surfaces: A First-Principles Study journal February 2015
Projector augmented-wave method journal December 1994
A Comprehensive Study of Formic Acid Oxidation on Palladium Nanocrystals with Different Types of Facets and Twin Defects journal April 2015
Composition-Dependent Electrocatalytic Activity of Palladium–Iridium Binary Alloy Nanoparticles Supported on the Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes for the Electro-Oxidation of Formic Acid journal July 2015
Improving the electrochemical oxidation of formic acid by tuning the electronic properties of Pd-based bimetallic nanoparticles journal October 2019
Bifunctional anode catalysts for direct methanol fuel cells journal January 2012
Electrochemical Versus Heat-Engine Energy Technology: A Tribute to Wilhelm Ostwald’s Visionary Statements journal November 2009
Universality in Heterogeneous Catalysis journal July 2002
Near-surface alloys for hydrogen fuel cell applications journal January 2006
Technology development for the production of biobased products from biorefinery carbohydrates—the US Department of Energy’s “Top 10” revisited journal January 2010
On the Structure Sensitivity of Dimethyl Ether Electro-oxidation on Eight FCC Metals: A First-Principles Study journal September 2015
Electro-Oxidation of Ethanol on Pt, Rh, and PtRh Electrodes. A Study Using DEMS and in-Situ FTIR Techniques journal September 2002
On the composition of bimetallic near-surface alloys in the presence of oxygen and carbon monoxide journal July 2014
Direct synthesis of formic acid from carbon dioxide by hydrogenation in acidic media journal June 2014
From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method journal January 1999
Thermodynamic theory of multi-electron transfer reactions: Implications for electrocatalysis journal September 2011
Reaction Mechanism of Vapor-Phase Formic Acid Decomposition over Platinum Catalysts: DFT, Reaction Kinetics Experiments, and Microkinetic Modeling journal March 2020
Production of liquid hydrocarbon fuels by catalytic conversion of biomass-derived levulinic acid journal January 2011
Combining Computational Modeling with Reaction Kinetics Experiments for Elucidating the In Situ Nature of the Active Site in Catalysis journal September 2020
Alloy catalysts designed from first principles journal October 2004
New Insight into the Decomposition Mechanism of Formic Acid on Pd(111): Competing Formation of CO 2 and CO journal January 2014
Theoretical Insight into the Trends that Guide the Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide to Formic Acid journal December 2015
Highly active Pd and Pd–Au nanoparticles supported on functionalized graphene nanoplatelets for enhanced formic acid oxidation journal January 2014
How Noninnocent Spectator Species Improve the Oxygen Reduction Activity of Single-Atom Catalysts: Microkinetic Models from First-Principles Calculations journal July 2020
First-Principles Mechanistic Analysis of Dimethyl Ether Electro-Oxidation on Monometallic Single-Crystal Surfaces journal September 2014
Atomistic Mechanism of Pt Extraction at Oxidized Surfaces: Insights from DFT journal May 2016
Density functional theory in surface chemistry and catalysis journal January 2011
Dipole correction for surface supercell calculations journal May 1999
The Brønsted–Evans–Polanyi relation and the volcano curve in heterogeneous catalysis journal May 2004
Adsorption behaviors of monomer and dimer of formic acid on Pt (111) in the absence and presence of water journal May 2014
Reactivity descriptors for direct methanol fuel cell anode catalysts journal November 2008
Nanoporous PdNi Alloy Nanowires As Highly Active Catalysts for the Electro-Oxidation of Formic Acid journal December 2010
Formic Acid Electrooxidation on Pt or Pd Monolayer on Transition-Metal Single Crystals: A First-Principles Structure Sensitivity Analysis journal April 2021
Sustainable energy: a review of formic acid electrochemical fuel cells journal April 2011
Adsorption and Dissociation of O2 on Pt−Co and Pt−Fe Alloys journal March 2004
Dimethyl ether electro-oxidation on platinum surfaces journal November 2016
The Role of Bridge-Bonded Adsorbed Formate in the Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Formic Acid on Platinum journal December 2010
Platinum and Palladium Monolayer Electrocatalysts for Formic Acid Oxidation journal April 2020
Carbon supported Pd-based bimetallic and trimetallic catalyst for formic acid electrochemical oxidation journal January 2016
Computational Methods in Heterogeneous Catalysis journal December 2020
Dynamics of Surface Alloys: Rearrangement of Pd/Ag(111) Induced by CO and O 2 journal October 2018
Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Formaldehyde on Platinum under Galvanostatic and Potential Sweep Conditions Studied by Time-Resolved Surface-Enhanced Infrared Spectroscopy journal September 2007
Facile Synthesis of Palladium Right Bipyramids and Their Use as Seeds for Overgrowth and as Catalysts for Formic Acid Oxidation journal October 2013
Efficiency of ab-initio total energy calculations for metals and semiconductors using a plane-wave basis set journal July 1996
Theoretical means for searching bimetallic alloys as anode electrocatalysts for direct liquid-feed fuel cells journal November 2007
Synthesis, Characterization, and Electrocatalytic Activity of PtBi and PtPb Nanoparticles Prepared by Borohydride Reduction in Methanol journal July 2006
Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations journal June 1976
Nanoporous bimetallic Pt–Au alloy nanocomposites with superior catalytic activity towards electro-oxidation of methanol and formic acid journal January 2011
Structure Sensitivity of Methanol Electrooxidation on Transition Metals journal October 2009
Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set journal October 1996
Crossover of formic acid through Nafion® membranes journal May 2003
Electrocatalytic oxidation of ethanol and ethylene glycol on cubic, octahedral and rhombic dodecahedral palladium nanocrystals journal January 2018
Recent progress in the structure control of Pd–Ru bimetallic nanomaterials journal July 2016
Insights into the Preference of CO 2 Formation from HCOOH Decomposition on Pd Surface: A Theoretical Study journal October 2012
Accurate and simple analytic representation of the electron-gas correlation energy journal June 1992
Bifunctional Electrocatalysis in Pt−Ru Nanoparticle Systems journal January 2008
Structure Sensitivity of Formic Acid Electrooxidation on Transition Metal Surfaces: A First-Principles Study journal January 2018
Surface segregation energies in transition-metal alloys journal June 1999
Trends in electrocatalysis on extended and nanoscale Pt-bimetallic alloy surfaces journal February 2007
Adsorption of formic acid on Pt(111) in the presence of water journal September 2007
Iridium-platinum alloy nanoparticles: Composition-dependent electrocatalytic activity for formic acid oxidation journal January 2011
Water at surfaces and interfaces: From molecules to ice and bulk liquid journal December 2018
On the structure sensitivity of and CO coverage effects on formic acid decomposition on Pd surfaces journal July 2021
Adsorbate-substrate and adsorbate-adsorbate interactions of Na and K adlayers on Al(111) journal December 1992
Origin of the Overpotential for Oxygen Reduction at a Fuel-Cell Cathode journal November 2004
Bimetallic and Ternary Alloys for Improved Oxygen Reduction Catalysis journal November 2007
Nanostructured PdRu/C catalysts for formic acid oxidation journal April 2011
Direct liquid-feed fuel cells: Thermodynamic and environmental concerns journal June 2007
Intermetallic PtPb Nanoparticles Prepared by Sodium Naphthalide Reduction of Metal-Organic Precursors:  Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Formic Acid journal October 2006