Fabrication of Noble-Metal Catalysts with a Desired Surface Wettability and Their Applications in Deciphering Multiphase Reactions

Noble-metal Pd and Pt catalysts with a wide range of surface wettability were fabricated through an electrochemical approach and were characterized with scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. The importance of surface wettability of solid catalysts in multiphase reactions-especially their correlation to the nature of the studied chemical system-was investigated by reducing oxygen in an alkaline solution and oxidizing hydrogen peroxide and sodium formate in alkaline or buffered solutions at the as-prepared catalysts. These experiments illustrate that the nature of a multiphase reaction plays a critical role in determining the influence of surface wettability on the catalyst performance, providing a unique approach to decipher the reaction process. The investigation allows us to gain new insights into the electrochemical oxidation of sodium formate.