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Enhanced Oxygen Reduction Stability and Activity by Co and N (or O) Interaction in CoO on N‐Doped Carbon Prepared through Spray Pyrolysis
Author(s) -
Kim In Gyeom,
Nah In Wook,
Park Sehkyu
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
chemelectrochem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.182
H-Index - 59
ISSN - 2196-0216
DOI - 10.1002/celc.201800396
Subject(s) - catalysis , heteroatom , pyrolysis , carbon fibers , electrocatalyst , cobalt , chemical engineering , inorganic chemistry , materials science , chemistry , nitrogen , electrochemistry , organic chemistry , composite number , electrode , ring (chemistry) , engineering , composite material
Abstract Although the development of a highly active and cost‐effective electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is necessary, it is a challenging issue for commercially viable energy conversion applications such as fuel cells or metal‐air batteries. In this study, we synthesize nitrogen‐doped, carbon‐supported CoO catalysts (denoted as CoO/NCs) with high stability and activity. The CoO/NC is prepared by one‐pot spray pyrolysis, which is simple and has an easily scalable synthetic route. In an effort to find a better catalyst composition for ORR activity, several catalysts are synthesized by controlling the concentrations of the solutions that contain carbon, urea as the nitrogen source, and a cobalt precursor. The catalysts are then characterized using various methods to comprehensively study their properties coupled with ORR kinetics and stability. The CoO/NC2 catalyst shows higher catalytic activity towards ORR than the other in‐house prepared catalysts. It is comparable to commercial Pt/C and has very high stability for 80 h in an alkaline medium. Systematic analyses clarify that the superior electrocatalytic performance of CoO/NC2 stems mainly from its enhanced electron density and pathway by heteroatom doping and its modified carbon nature during spray pyrolysis.