One‐Pot Synthesis of Freestanding Porous Palladium Nanosheets as Highly Efficient Electrocatalysts for Formic Acid Oxidation

TLDR: In this paper, a facile one-pot synthesis of ultrathin freestanding porous Pd nanosheets (≈2.5 µm in lateral size and 10 nm in thickness) was presented.

Abstract: Freestanding ultrathin 2D noble metal nanosheets have drawn enormous attention due to their potential applications in various fields. However, the synthesis of 2D noble metal nanosheets still remains a great challenge due to the lack of an intrinsic driving force for anisotropic growth of 2D structures. Here, a facile one-pot synthesis of ultrathin freestanding porous Pd nanosheets (≈2.5 µm in lateral size and 10 nm in thickness) flexibly knitted by interweaved ultrathin nanowires with the assistance of poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) is presented. Nanoparticles attachment and subsequent self-assembly in the synthetic process are responsible for the formation of such intriguing nanostructures. Moreover, finely controlling the pH value of the precursor solution leads to yield different Pd nanostructures with tunable dimensionalities, including 3D nanoflowers, 2D nanosheets, and 1D nanochains. Owing to the unique structural features, the obtained freestanding porous Pd nanosheets exhibit excellent electrocatalytic activity and stability towards formic acid oxidation compared to those of other dimensional counterparts and commercial Pd black.