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Fe‐N‐C Oxygen Reduction Fuel Cell Catalyst Derived from Carbendazim: Synthesis, Structure, and Reactivity
Author(s) -
Serov Alexey,
Artyushkova Kateryna,
Atanassov Plamen
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
advanced energy materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.08
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1614-6840
pISSN - 1614-6832
DOI - 10.1002/aenm.201301735
Subject(s) - catalysis , materials science , carbendazim , reactivity (psychology) , open circuit voltage , pyrolysis , oxygen , membrane electrode assembly , metal , chemical engineering , proton exchange membrane fuel cell , inorganic chemistry , nuclear chemistry , electrode , organic chemistry , metallurgy , chemistry , voltage , alternative medicine , electrolyte , fungicide , pathology , engineering , biology , quantum mechanics , medicine , botany , physics
New non‐PGM catalysts from the family of Fe‐N‐C pyrolyzed materials are reported. They are synthesized using a templating silica powder with iron nitrate and carbendazim (CBDZ) precursors (sacrificial support method). The synthesis involves high temperature pyrolysis, followed by etching of the sacrificial support (silica) and obtaining a “self‐supported” open frame morphology catalyst. Both the temperature of heat treatment and Fe to CBDZ ratio play a crucial role in the final catalytic activity in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Prepared materials have extremely high durability in RDE tests, ending up with more than 94% of initial activity (by E 1/2 value) after 10 000 cycles in an oxygen atmosphere, which is the result we report for the first time. Evaluation of these new M‐N‐C catalysts in a single membrane electrode assembly (MEA) has shown an exceptionally high open circuit voltage (OCV) of 1 V and the world's second best performance with no IR correction. MEA tests have shown high current density of 700 mA cm ‐2 at 0.6 V and 120 mA cm ‐2 at 0.8 V. In‐depth structure‐to‐property correlation presents an evidence that Fe‐N x centers are the active sites playing a key role in oxygen reduction reaction.