A synergistic approach of Vulcan carbon and CeO 2 in their composite as an efficient oxygen reduction reaction catalyst
- PDF / 1,617,918 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 87 Downloads / 219 Views
RESEARCH ARTICLE
A synergistic approach of Vulcan carbon and CeO2 in their composite as an efficient oxygen reduction reaction catalyst Ipsha Hota1 · A. K. Debnath2 · K. P. Muthe2 · K. S. K. Varadwaj1 · P. Parhi1 Received: 5 April 2020 / Accepted: 28 July 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract There is a continuous demand for non-precious and cost effective metal based electrocatalyst for carrying out Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR). In this paper, we have reported ORR performance of cerium oxide (CeO2) and volcano carbon (VC) composite varying volcano carbon percentage. C eO2/VC composite with different VC wt% was prepared by microwave mediated solvothermal method in just 10 min reaction time. Their electrocatalytic ORR activity was studied using Rotating Ring Disk Electrode (RRDE) technique in alkaline medium. The C eO2/VC (80 wt%) composite exhibited superior electrochemical stability and methanol tolerance capability as compared to Pt/C. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) study confirmed that in case of CeO2/VC composite, the synergistic interaction between VC and CeO2 leads to enhancement of ORR catalytic activity. Graphic abstract
Extended author information available on the last page of the article
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Applied Electrochemistry
Keywords Microwave solvothermal synthesis · CeO2/VC nanocomposites · Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) · Rotating Ring Disk Electrode (RRDE)
1 Introduction Fuel cell can act as an alternative to the conventional fossil fuels to overcome the energy crisis. The cathodic Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) in the fuel cell suffers as a result of sluggish kinetics [1]. ORR can proceed either via facile four electron pathway (O2 + 2H2O + 4e− → 4OH−) or via complicated two electron pathway (O2 + H2O + 2e− → HO2− + OH−). The important challenge related to the development of highly active catalyst for the ORR is to prepare a material capable of reducing O2 in a four-electron pathway [2]. Though the noble metal based catalysts are proved to be excellent ORR catalysts but their high cost, lower stability and low methanol tolerance capability limits their application [3]. Transition metal based systems were studied in order to overcome the drawbacks of noble metals. Several studies have demonstrated that Transition Metal Oxides (TMOs) such as MnO2, Co3O4, Mn3O4 etc. possess excellent oxygen reduction ability in alkaline medium [4–7]. It has been reported in the literature that, in order to overcome the lower electrical conductivity of TMOs, they were integrated with active functional carbon frameworks (CNT, rGO, MWCNT, hetero atom doped rGO etc.) [8–14]. Rare earth metal oxides with interlayer defects and oxygen vacancies were thought to be potential candidate for ORR studies. However, the rare earth oxides suffer from low electrical conductivity, which is unfavourable for fast electronic transfer during the electrochemical catalytic process. We believe that like transition metal oxide the catalytic activity of rare earth oxide can be
Data Loading...
