Preparation of Au nanodendrites supported on carbon fiber cloth and its catalytic performance to H2O2 electroreduction and electrooxidation

Well-defined Au dendrites supported on carbon fiber cloth are successfully prepared by potential pulse electrodeposition without additives or surfactants. The electrode (D-Au/CFC) is characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffractometry. H2O2 electroreduction in H2SO4 and electrooxidation in KOH solution on the dendritic Au electrode are studied by linear sweep voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The D-Au/CFC electrode exhibits much higher catalytic activity and remarkably improved utilization of Au than Au nanoparticles prepared by the same method for both H2O2 electroreduction and electrooxidation owing to its unique open dendritic structure. The H2O2 electroreduction in H2SO4 solution exhibits much larger overpotentials than the H2O2 electrooxidation in KOH solution on the D-Au/CFC electrode. A high DPPFC performance using it both as the anode and cathode exhibits an open circuit voltage as high as ∼0.8 V and the peak power density can reach 14 mW cm−2 at 20 °C.