Decreasing the particle size and alloying with other non-noble metal such as Co, Ni, Fe, Cu, Sn are choices to reduce the cost of the catalysts.[1, 2] The changing of catalyst structure results in the better electrochemical performance of the catalysts. However, non-noble metals like Co, Fe as the component will be dissolved in the process of electrochemical testing. This process will damage the membrane based on Fenton reaction.[3]

The vanadium was reported to change the crystalline structure in the crystal growth process.[4] Herein, we report a method to change the electric structure and reduce the particle size of palladium by the ammonium vanadate (NH₄VO₃). This method is easy to operate and does not require the complicated experimental conditions. NH₄VO₃ and sodium tetrachloropalladate (II) as precursors are heated in the ethylene glycol at the temperature of 120 ℃. The average particle size of the resulting material is 3.5 nm instead of 7 nm without the addition of vanadium. The electric structure is changed obviously according to the negative shift in XPS peak. The existence of vanadium make small particle size but does not doped into Pd. The synthesized catalyst shows three times activity for ethanol electrooxidation than that of the Pd/C.