LAUSR

Tuning the compositions and structures of Pd-based nanomaterials and their supports has shown great potentials in facilitating the sluggish ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) in alkaline direct ethanol fuel cells. Accordingly, a facile solvothermal method involving Cu and Pd composition migrations is developed in this study, to synthesize highly uniform and small-sized nanospheres (NSs) possessing the special structures of composition-graded (CG) Cu1Pd1 and surface-doped (SD) Ir0.03, which are evenly anchored onto N-doped porous graphene (NPG) as a high-performance EOR electrocatalyst (CGCu1Pd1/SDIr0.03 NSs/NPG). Comprehensive physicochemical characterizations, electrochemical analyses, and first-principles calculations reveal that, benefiting from the NPG-imparted mass-transfer and oxygen-reduction effects, the CG–SD structural and size-morphology effects of the NS, as well as the Cu- and Ir-induced bifunctional, geometric, and ligand effects, CGCu1Pd1/SDIr0.03 NSs/NPG exhibits not only ultrahigh electroca...