One-pot synthesis of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 supported on flower-like CeO2 as electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction in aluminum-air batteries

A novel La0.7Sr0.3MnO3-CeO2 (LSM-CeO2) hybrid catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has been synthesized by a facile one-pot method. The flower-like CeO2 with the diameter of about 3 sm is formed by the agglomeration of nanosheets with the thickness of about 40 nm. The ISM particles with the diameter of about 150 nm are well distributed on the flower-like CeO2, thus the interaction between LSM and CeO2 is built. Therefore, the LSM-CeO2 composite catalyst exhibits the much higher catalytic activity toward ORR with the direct four-electron transfer mechanism in alkaline solution than ISM or CeO2. Furthermore, the stability of LSM-CeO2 is superior to that of Pt/C, and the current retention is 93% after 100000 s. The maximum power density of the aluminum-air battery using LSM-CeO2 as the ORRC can reach 238 mW cm(-2), which is about 29% higher than that with LSM (184 mW cm(-2)). It indicates that ISMCeO2 composite material is a promising cathodic electrocatalyst for metal-air batteries. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.