Fabrication of GC-r-GO-PAMAM (G3)-Pd electrode for electro-catalytic oxidation of formic acid

Graphene functionalized with Poly(amidoamine) dendrimer stabilized PdNPs (r-GO-PAMAM-Pd) composite was prepared through facile experimental routes and characterized by FT-IR, XRD, Raman, SEM and EDAX techniques. Initially, poly(amidoamine) generation 3 (PAMAM (G3)) dendrimer was functionalized on graphene oxide (GO) and the resulting matrix was loaded with PdNPs through stabilization and thus produced excellent conducting composite material. The electro-catalytic activity of this composite was inspected by coating on bare GCE and thus produced stable and efficient GC-r-GO-PAMAM (G3)-Pd electrode and this in turn demonstrated for the oxidation of formic acid (FA). The occurrence of the oxidation reaction was monitored by cyclic voltammetric (CV) and linear sweep voltammetric (LSV) techniques in 0.5 M H2SO4 medium at the potential window of -0.3 to 1.0 V vs. Ag/AgCl, v = 50 mVs-1. The observed peak potential for the new electrode was located at 0.15V and compared with existing electrodes derived from different GO/Pd composites.The comparative results reveals that the newly designed electrode shown an excellent catalytic activity, more resistant to the surface poisoning and the anodic onset potential was more negative than the reported electrodes. This improved electro-catalytic performance are due to the contribution of synergetic effect of GO, dendrimer and PdNPs.  Copyright © 2018 VBRI Press.