Journal
JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES
Volume 196, Issue 18, Pages 7404-7410Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2011.04.016
Keywords
Alkaline fuel cell; Oxygen reduction reaction; Non-noble electrocatalyst; CuFe
Funding
- Office of Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Infrastructure Technologies of the U.S. Department of Energy [DE-AC02-05CH11231]
- National Science Foundation [0616644]
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Chemistry [1129417] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The primary objective of this work is to develop alternative electrocatalysts to Pt-based materials for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline fuel cells. We synthesized a bicore CuFe/C composite electrocatalyst by impregnation of iron and copper phthalocyanine-based complexes into a carbon support, followed by pyrolysis at 800-900 degrees C in an Ar atmosphere. This novel composite catalyst exhibits electrochemical performance for ORR in 0.1 M KOH similar to a commercial Pt/C (BASF Fuel Cell. 30%) catalyst at 6-fold lower CuFe loading. High resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HR-XPS) results indicate that coordination bonding between Fe and N atoms still remains and show that a mixed Cu(I)/Cu(II) valency exists in the CuFe/C catalyst after high temperature heat treatment. The Cu(I)/Cu(II) redox mediator adjacent to Fe atoms is crucial to provide electrons to the NxFe-O-2 adduct and maximize the overall rate of the reduction reaction. The results of this study may offer a new approach to development of efficient catalysts for oxygen reduction to water in alkaline media. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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