Prussian Blue-Carbon Hybrid as a Non-Precious Electrocatalyst for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Alkaline Medium

We describe a simple approach for the Prussian blue nanocubes dispersed on carbon composite (PBC/C) as a non-precious catalyst for the electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline medium. The interaction between Prussian blue (PB) and the carbon support was confirmed by using FT-IR, and XPS spectroscopy. PBC/C catalyst exhibits 100 mV more positive onset potential than Prussian blue supported on carbon (PB/VXC-72) for ORR. Rotating disk electrode measurements showed that PBC/C had about 17 times higher oxygen reduction mass activity compared to the PB/VXC-72 physical mixture. PBC/C hybrid catalyst exhibited superior durability in aqueous alkaline medium compared with Pt/C and also provided low H202 production confirmed by rotating ring-disk electrode measurement. The PBC/C catalyst showed better activity and selectivity, which can be attributed to the synergistic coupling effects between the PB nanocubes and carbon support. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.