Electrochemical Post-Treatment of Infinite Coordination Polymers: An Effective Route to Preparation of Pd Nanoparticles Supported onto Carbon Nanotubes with Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity toward Ethanol Oxidation

This study describes an effective method to prepare highly dispersed palladium nanoparticles supported onto single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with high electrocatalytic activity toward the oxidation of ethanol. This method is essentially based on electrochemical post-treatment of Pd-based infinite coordination polymer (ICP). The Pd-based ICP is synthesized through the coordination reaction between Zn2+ and metallo-Schiff base (MSB) to form Zn-MSB-Zn (ZMZ) ICP that precipitates from ethyl ether. The as-formed Zn-MSB-Zn ICP is then subjected to an ion-exchange reaction with Pd2+ to obtain the Zn-MSB-Pd (ZMP) ICP. To prepare Pd/SWNT nanocomposite, the ZMP ICP is mixed into the SWNT dispersion in N-dimethylformamide (DMF) to form a homogeneous dispersion that is then drop-coated onto a glassy carbon (GC) electrode. Electrochemical post-treatment of ZMP ICP to form Pd/SWNT nanocomposite is thus performed by polarizing the coated electrode at −0.2 V for 600 s in 0.5 M H2SO4. The results obtained with scann...