Tailored synthesis of hybrid iron-nitrogen-graphene with reduced carbon xerogel as an efficient electrocatalyst towards
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Tailored synthesis of hybrid iron-nitrogen-graphene with reduced carbon xerogel as an efficient electrocatalyst towards oxygen reduction S. Seetharaman 1 & S. Vinod Selvaganesh 1 & Raghuram Chetty 1 Received: 20 May 2020 / Revised: 17 July 2020 / Accepted: 14 August 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract In this study, a non-precious metal-based electrocatalyst consisting of nitrogen-doped iron-coated reduced graphene oxide (FeNG) on carbon xerogel towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline media is reported. Herein, we describe a facile three-step synthesis route towards enhanced ORR activity. The effect of pyrolysis temperature and the resulting structural variations of the designated catalyst towards ORR were investigated. The as-synthesized carbon xerogel samples were reduced (rCX) and then pyrolyzed at different temperatures, viz., 700, 900, and 1100 °C, followed by the incorporation of FeNG, and their performance towards ORR was studied. The resultant rCXFeNG (reduced carbon xerogel-iron-nitrogen-doped graphene) catalyst pyrolyzed at an optimum temperature of 1100 °C (rCXFeNG-1100) showed enhanced electrocatalytic performance towards ORR and exhibited an onset potential of 0.84 V vs. RHE (reversible hydrogen electrode). Besides, it is remarkable that rCXFeNG-1100 delivers a limiting current density of 5.55 mA cm−2, which is fairly equivalent to that of the commercial Pt/C electrocatalyst. It is noteworthy that the rCXFeNG-1100 electrocatalyst showed a four-electron transfer pathway for ORR and showed better stability and improved durability outperforming the commercial Pt/C electrocatalyst. The present study opens up a promising approach for the design and fabrication of cost-effective non-precious ORR electrocatalysts for alkaline polymer electrolyte fuel cells. Keywords Carbon xerogel . Nitrogen doping . Reduced graphene oxide . Non-precious electrocatalyst . Oxygen reduction reaction . Alkaline fuel cells
Introduction The judicious development of cost-effective and efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) can substantially bring down the cost of fuel cells, and non-precious metal-based electrocatalysts (NPMCs) are being considered an alternative in this regard. In fact, the high cost, less availability of Pt, and relatively sluggish ORR kinetics in the acidic Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-020-03744-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * S. Seetharaman [email protected] Raghuram Chetty [email protected] 1
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
medium have turned the researchers’ attention towards the alkaline medium and subsequently led to the development of alkaline polymer electrolyte fuel cells (APEFCs). APEFCs are reported to exhibit superior characteristics over proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) especially in regard to kinetics at the cathode as
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