Pyrolyzed titanium dioxide/polyaniline as an efficient non-noble metal electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction

To overcome the prohibitive cost and poor durability of conventional Pt-based catalysts, TiO2/C was prepared by pyrolyzing a novel titanium dioxide/polyaniline (TiO2/PANI) composite. The prepared catalysts were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, cyclic voltammetry (CV), and linear sweep voltammetry. Interaction between PANI and TiO2 was found to inhibit the aggregation of TiO2 and its transformation from anatase to rutile. The catalytic activity of the TiO2/C first increased with increasing PANI content and then decreased; the optimum was achieved when the PANI/TiO2 mass ratio was 35/100. CV and i–t curves showed that the prepared composite has a good catalytic stability.

Graphical AbstractTo overcome the prohibitive cost and poor durability of conventional Pt-based catalysts, TiO2/C was prepared by pyrolyzing a novel TiO2/PANI composite. This non-noble metal electrocatalyst exhibits good ORR catalytic activity owing to the beneficial interaction between PANI and TiO2.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide