In situ nanopores enrichment of Mesh-like palladium nanoplates for bifunctional fuel cell reactions: A joint etching strategy.

Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials with nanopore display an enhancement effect on electrocatalysis behavior, whereas the nanopore engineering for 2D nanocatalysts remains an insurmountable challenge. We advance the synthesis of multilayer Pd nanoplates (Pd NPs) and two types of meshy nanoplates (Pd LMNPs/MNPs) with escalating nanopores from none and sparse to porous. Specially, an in situ nanopore enrichment on these Pd nanoplates hinges on a joint etching strategy with integrated manipulation of reaction kinetics. The optimized Pd MNPs exhibit exceptional oxygen reduction reaction performance, owing to the enhanced intermediates protonation on Pd site neighboring nanopore, which has been elucidated by density functional theory calculations. In addition, Pd MNPs also deliver excellent performances in fuel cell anodic reactions, including ethanol oxidation reaction and formic acid oxidation reaction. This study highlights a new strategy for in situ nanopores engineering, providing a prospect for designing superior nanocatalysts.