Zinc‐assisted synthesis of Fe‐N‐C catalysts based on polyaniline with high oxygen reduction reaction catalytic activities in direct methanol fuel cells. Issue 1 (4th December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Xuelin; Hou, Chenjun; Yuan, Weijian; Deng, Chengwei; Ji, Feng; Tian, Li; Lin, Guochang; Deng, Huichao; Zhang, Yufeng
• Is Part Of: Fuel cells. Volume 23:Issue 1(2023)
• Page Start: 42
• Page End: 50
• Publication Date: 2022-12-04
• Subjects: direct methanol fuel cells -- Fe‐N‐C -- polyaniline -- oxygen reduction reaction -- zinc‐assisted synthesis; Fuel cells -- Periodicals; 621.312429
• DOI: 10.1002/fuce.202200118
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1615-6846

Abstract

Abstract: Fe‐N‐C catalysts show great potential to replace Pt/C in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Polyaniline (PANI) is an ideal precursor with an abundant and homogeneous distribution of nitrogen sources. However, Fe‐N‐C based on PANI suffers from an unsatisfied performance in acidic media. Herein, a facile zinc‐assisted synthesis of Fe‐N‐C based on PANI was reported in this paper. ZnCl2 templates can be removed completely in the pyrolysis procedure, creating abundant porous structures to accelerate the mass transfer and boost ORR performance. Fe‐N‐C‐2 with the adequate and optimizing amount of zinc shows an excellent ORR performance ( E 1/2 = 0.91 V in alkaline and E 1/2 = 0.825 V in acidic media) compared with Pt/C ( E 1/2 = 0.89 V in alkaline and E 1/2 = 0.84 V in acidic media). Furthermore, a high power density and a long‐term operation within 6 h of direct methanol fuel cell based on brilliant Fe‐N‐C‐2 verify a great promising application of potable power devices in the future.