Oxygen reduction catalytic characteristics of vanadium carbide and nitrogen doped vanadium carbide

• The catalytic performances of VC were investigated.
• The onset potential of ORR of VC can be improved by doped nitrogen.
• Transitional metal carbides are promising catalysts for oxygen reduction.

To develop low-cost and high-performance non-precious metal-based oxygen reduction catalysts, we investigate the structure and catalytic performance of industrialized vanadium carbide (VC) and nitrogen doped vanadium carbide (V(C, N)). The structure of VC and V(C, N) were examined by XRD, SEM and XPS tests. Results show that the structures of both VC and V(C, N) are face centered cubic and the crystalline size of V(C, N) is slightly larger than that of VC. Electrochemical tests show that the onset potentials of oxygen reduction of V(C, N) and VC are about 23 mV and 51 mV lower than that of Pt/C catalyst. The polarization and electron transfer number of oxygen reduction under the catalysis of V(C, N) is lower than that of VC. This paper explores a new way for developing low-cost and high-performance catalysts for fuel cells from industrialized transitional metal carbides.

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