FACILE SYNTHESIS OF Pt-/Pd-MODIFIED NiTi ELECTRODE WITH SUPERIOR ELECTRO-CATALYTIC ACTIVITIES TOWARD METHANOL, ETHANOL AND ETHYLENE GLYCOL OXIDATION

Surface functional modification of NiTi electrode with noble Pt and Pd metal has been successfully carried out by simple and cost effective electro-spark deposition technique (ESD). Thin-film X-ray diffraction (TF-XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) have been carried out in order to investigate the structure, morphology, chemical composition and electrochemical behavior of the modified electrode surface. The modified Pt/NiTi and Pd/NiTi electrode surface exhibit a circular splash pattern with a tiny amount of Pt (similar to 5.30 at.% Pt) and Pd (similar to 5.71 at.% Pd) existence. The electrochemical results demonstrate that the Pt/NiTi and Pd/NiTi electrode possess an improved electro-catalytic activities toward methanol (MeOH), ethanol (EtOH) and ethylene glycol (EG) oxidation in alkaline media in comparison with the bare NiTi electrode. In acidic environments, the Pt/NiTi electrode exhibits even much better catalytic activities than the pure Pt sheet electrode due to the bifunctional mechanism. In the same way, the electro-catalytic activity of the modified Pd/NiTi electrode is also slightly larger than that of the pure Pd sheet electrode in alkaline environment. The electro-spark surface modification approach is rapid and environmentally-benign, being attractive to widen the application of traditional surface modification technique in the field of material surface/interface design and functionalization.