Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
7718052 | International Journal of Hydrogen Energy | 2014 | 9 Pages |
Abstract
The most promising non-precious metal oxygen reduction catalysts are M-Nx/C (M = Fe and/or Co) materials. Moreover, N-containing precursor is one of the important factors that affect oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity of M-Nx/C materials. In this paper, we want to study nitrogen precursor effects on ORR activity of Co-Nx/C catalysts by varying N content and N/C ratio of the nitrogen precursor. In this regard, three Co-Nx/C catalysts were synthesized using a solvent-milling method followed by high temperature treatment. The results showed that the increase in N content and N/C ratio did not necessarily cause the improvement of ORR activity of the Co-Nx/C catalyst. The most active catalyst, Co-HQ/C-800 (heat treatment of carbon supported Co-HQ complex at 800 °C for 2 h), was obtained using 8-hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ) as the nitrogen precursor. XPS analysis demonstrated that more graphitic N and Co-Nx active sites were responsible for better ORR activity of the Co-HQ/C-800 catalyst. The electrochemical property of the three Co-Nx/C catalysts was evaluated by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), chronoamperometric measurements, accelerated durability tests (ADT) and H2/O2 alkaline fuel cell (AFC) tests.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
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Electrochemistry
Authors
Shujun Chao, Qian Cui, Zhengyu Bai, Huiying Yan, Kui Wang, Lin Yang,