Development of Platinum-free Catalyst for ORR Application

This work centers on development of Platinum free catalyst based on pyrolized vinazene carbon composite for oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells and air battery cathodes. Oxygen (O2) is the most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. But the ORR kinetics especially in the acidic medium is very slow. To speed up the ORR kinetics to reach a practical level in fuel cell applications an active and stable catalyst is needed. To date platinum-based materials are the most practical catalysts used in fuel cells. However Pt is scarce and costly. It is against this background that we are using novel vinazene based nitrogen precursor to develop highly active Fe-N-C catalysts for ORR using different carbon supports. The synthesized catalysts were characterized using electrochemical techniques (RDE and stationary voltamperometry) BET and spectroscopic techniques (RAMAN XRDSEM-EDS and XPS). The synthesized catalyst based on KB showed better activity than catalyst based on Vul. It also has good activity compared to Pt-based catalyst. However both catalysts Fe-N-C/KB and Fe-N-C/Vulcan demonstrated very good stability and excellent methanol tolerance.