Ir–V nanoparticles supported on microstructure controlled carbon nanofibers as electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction

Ir–V nanoparticles supported on microstructure controlled carbon nanofibers (CNFs) or on carbon black, Vulcan XC-72 (XC-72), have been synthesized via chemical reduction, and the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) properties of catalysts are investigated in this paper. The physico-chemical properties are characterized by high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), N2 physisorption and electrochemical analysis. HRTEM results show that the metal nanoparticles are separated on carbon support with well-controlled particle size, dispersity, and composition uniformity. Moreover, the metal nanoparticles on CNFs have a smaller size than those on XC-72. Cyclic voltammetric analysis reveals that Ir–V/CNFs exhibits a higher ORR activity than Ir–V/XC-72, and this may be associated with the smaller metal nanoparticles and the stronger metal-support interaction of Ir–V/CNFs. Linear sweep voltammetric analysis at different rotation rates proves that ORR on the Ir–V/CNFs electrode is a 4e− process.