Coordinated Fast Synthesis of Electrocatalytic Palladium Nanoparticles Decorated Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite for Fuel Cell Applications

Reduced graphene oxide and palladium nanoparticle (r-GO/Pd) nanocomposites were synthesized by an ecofriendly one-pot solid-state reduction method using ascorbic acid as a reducing agent. The coordinated formation of r-GO/Pd nanocomposite was observed within 2 min. The formed Pd nanoparticles (5 nm size) were uniformly distributed over the r-GO as characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The cyclic voltammetric study revealed that the r-GO/Pd nanocomposite exhibited excellent electrocatalytic behavior toward the oxidation of alcohols in an alkaline medium. Our study proposes a cost-effective, easy, rapid, scalable, and environmentally friendly method for the synthesis of GO/metal nanoparticles hybrid catalytic material for electrochemical energy applications.