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Bio‐inspired iron/sulfur/graphene nanocomposite and its use in the catalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction at room temperature in alkaline media on a glassy carbon electrode
Author(s) -
Seyyedi Behnam,
Ahmadi Variani Bahar,
Habibi Esmaeil
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of the chinese chemical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.329
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 2192-6549
pISSN - 0009-4536
DOI - 10.1002/jccs.201800326
Subject(s) - chemistry , electrocatalyst , tafel equation , graphene , catalysis , nanocomposite , reversible hydrogen electrode , glassy carbon , rotating disk electrode , inorganic chemistry , electrode , platinum , atmospheric temperature range , sulfur , oxygen , chemical engineering , electrochemistry , nanotechnology , working electrode , cyclic voltammetry , materials science , organic chemistry , engineering , physics , meteorology
This work demonstrates the performance of a bio‐inspired iron/sulfur/graphene nanocomposite as a non‐platinum electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in an alkaline medium. The catalyst shows the most positive ORR onset potential (1.1 V vs. RHE) according to its unique structure in the alkaline medium (KOH solution, pH = 13) at low temperature ( T = 298 K). The catalyst is evaluated by the rotating‐disk electrode (RDE) method under various rotating speeds (0–2,000 rpm) in the potential range −0.02–1.18 V vs. a rechargeable hydrogen electrode (RHE). The number of transferred electrons, as one of the most important parameters, is almost constant over a wide range of potentials (0.1–0.8 V), which indicates a more efficient four‐electron pathway from O 2 to H 2 O on the FePc‐S‐Gr surface. The mean size of catalyst centers are in the nanoscale (<10 nm). The estimated Tafel slope in the appropriate range is about −110 mV per decade at low current density, and E 1/2 of FePc‐S‐Gr displays a negative shift of only 7.1 mV after 10,000 cycles.