Iron-based sulfur and nitrogen dual doped porous carbon as durable electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction

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Choudhury F. A., Norouzi N., Amir K., DEMİR M., El-Kaderi H. M.

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, cilt.47, sa.9, ss.6078-6088, 2022 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 47 Sayı: 9
  • Basım Tarihi: 2022
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.12.020
  • Dergi Adı: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, PASCAL, Artic & Antarctic Regions, Chemical Abstracts Core, Communication Abstracts, Environment Index, INSPEC
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.6078-6088
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Electrocatalyst, Fuel cell, Iron-based sulfur and nitrogen dual doped porous carbon, Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR)
  • Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
  • Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

The widespread use of fuel cell technology is hampered by the use of expensive and scarce platinum metal in electrodes which is required to facilitate the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). In this work, a viable synthetic approach was developed to prepare iron-based sulfur and nitrogen dual doped porous carbon (Fe@SNDC) for use in ORR. Benzimidazole, a commercially available monomer, was used as a precursor for N doped carbon and calcined with potassium thiocyanate at different temperatures to tune the pore size, nitrogen content and different types of nitrogen functionality such as pyridinic, pyrrolic and graphitic. The Fe@SNDC–950 with high surface area, optimum N content of about 5 at% and high amount of pyridinic and graphitic N displayed an onset potential and half-wave potential of 0.98 and 0.83 V vs RHE, respectively, in 0.1 M KOH solution. The catalyst also exhibits similar oxygen reduction reaction performance compared to Pt/C (20 wt%) in acidic media. Furthermore, when compared to commercially available Pt/C (20 wt%), Fe@SNDC–950 showed enhanced durability over 6 h and poison tolerance in case of methanol crossover with the concentration up to 3.0 M in oxygen saturated alkaline electrolyte. Our study demonstrates that the presence of N and S along with Fe-N moieties synergistically served as ORR active sites while the high surface area with accessible pores allowed for efficient mass transfer and interaction of oxygen molecules to the active sites contributing to the ORR activity of the catalyst.