Palladium Electrodeposition on Highly Conductive Carbon Supports: A Fundamental Approach on the Rotating Disk Slurry Electrodeposition (RoDSE) Techniqu

This thesis presents the deposition of Pd nanoparticles on porous carbon support substrates via the RoDSE methodology to produce an efficient catalyst for varied applications. The first task involved the optimization of the RoDSE technique for the deposition of Pd nanoparticles on Vulcan XC-72R nanoflakes carbon support by shifting the applied electrodeposition potential for each synthesis, which allowed us to obtain the optimal conditions for this methodology to produce an efficient Pd/Vulcan XC-72R nanoflakes catalyst for ethanol electrooxidation in alkaline media. The second task involved the deposition of Pd nanoparticles on a carbon nano-onions (CNO) substrate using the optimal conditions obtained in the first task and comparing with the optimized Pd/Vulcan XC-72R nanoflakes catalyst for non-enzymatic glucose sensing in alkaline media. All the synthesized Pd/C catalysts provided excellent activity, stability and reproducibility in their respective electrochemical experiments.