From the past to the present, humanity has relied on fossil fuels for energy production. Fossil fuels emit carbon oxides, the primary cause of global warming, which trigger the greenhouse effect. To reduce the use of fossil fuels, the primary driver o...
From the past to the present, humanity has relied on fossil fuels for energy production. Fossil fuels emit carbon oxides, the primary cause of global warming, which trigger the greenhouse effect. To reduce the use of fossil fuels, the primary driver of global warming, interest in renewable energy is increasing. Among these, water electrolysis and fuel cell technologies, which store and produce energy through electrochemical reactions, are emerging as key alternatives due to their capability to achieve high-efficiency energy conversion without carbon emissions. Water electrolysis is the reaction that uses electrical energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, while a fuel cell is a system that converts the chemical energy stored in hydrogen into electrical energy to generate clean power. These two technologies enable cyclical energy conversion, playing a pivotal role in establishing hydrogen-based energy systems. However, these electrochemical reactions proceed slowly at the electrode surface, making catalysts with high activity and stability essential. Current commercial catalysts utilise precious metal-based materials such as Pt, IrO2, and RuO2, presenting limitations of high cost and resource scarcity that hinder widespread adoption. Consequently, developing catalysts that are cost-effective yet provide high electrochemical activity is critically important. For this reason, research into nanoparticles is actively being conducted, aiming to enhance efficiency by minimising the amount of precious metals used or maximising the surface area where catalytic reactions occur. Particularly noteworthy are hollow-structured nanoparticles with internal voids. These provide a significantly larger surface area per unit mass and allow reactants to penetrate into the particle interior, thereby maximising the exposure of active sites. This structural advantage leads to increased catalytic activity, enabling enhanced catalytic performance in electrochemical reactions.
Therefore, in this study, the Kirkendall effect, induced by the difference in ion diffusion rates between Cu+ diffusing outward and Pd2+ diffusing inward during the cation exchange reaction, was employed to synthesis hollow Pd3N nanoparticles with an internal void structure. This approach minimised the use of precious metals and maximised the accessible surface area. Furthermore, the effects of synthesis conditions—including the type of Pd precursor, reaction temperature, and solvent composition—on the phase, morphology, and evolution of the hollow structure in the final product were systematically investigated.