Biosynthesized Pd-Au Alloy Nanocatalysts Grown On Carbon Fiber Paper For Efficient Hydrogen Evolution

Bimetallic nanomaterials with enhanced activity and stability have been extensively studied as emerging catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Expensive and environmentally unfriendly synthesis routes inhibit their large-scale applications. In this work, we developed a facile and green synthesis of Pd-Au alloy nanoparticles (NPs) grown on carbon fiber paper (CFP) by plant-mediated bioreduction coupled with self-assembly. Engineering the morphology and composition of bimetallic catalysts synthesized by plant extracts on complicated substrate is achieved. The resulting NPs are uniform in shape and have a spherical morphology with an average diameter of-180 nm, in which the molar ratio of Au/Pd is near 75:25 and the catalysts loading is about 0.5 mg/cm2. The Pd-Au/CFP hybrid electrode exhibits an excellent HER performance with a Tafel slope of 47 mV/dec and an exchange current density of 0.256 mA/cm2. Electrochemical stability tests through long-term potential cycles and potentiostatic electrolysis further confirms the high durability of the electrode. This development offers an efficient and eco-friendly catalysts synthesis route for constructing water-splitting cells and other electrocatalytic devices.