Enhanced performance of direct peroxide/peroxide fuel cell by using ultrafine Nickel Ferric Ferrocyanide nanoparticles as the cathode catalyst

Direct peroxide-peroxide fuel cell (DPPFC) employing with H2O2 both as the fuel and oxidant is an attractive fuel cell due to its no intermediates, easy handling, low toxicity and expense. However, the major gap of DPPFC is the cathode performance as a result of the slow reaction kinetics of H2O2 electro-reduction and thus the target issue is to design cathode catalysts with high performance and low cost. Herein, different with using noble metal of state-of-the-art, we have successfully synthesized ultra-fine NiFe ferrocyanide (NiFeHCF) nanoparticles (the mean particles size is 2.5 nm) through a co-precipitation method, which is used as the cathode catalyst towards H2O2 reduction in acidic medium. The current density of H2O2 reduction on the resultant NiFeHCF electrode after the 1800 s test period at −0.1, 0 and 0.1 V are 121, 93 and 76 mA cm2, respectively. Meanwhile, a single two-compartment DPPFC cell with NiFeHCF nanoparticles as the cathode and Ni/Ni foam as the anode is assembled and displayed a stable OCP of 1.09 V and a peak power density of 36 mW cm−2 at 20 °C, which is much higher than that of a DPPFC employed with Pd nano-catalyst as cathode.