Templated Non Precious Cathode Catalysts Prepared by Transition Metal and Poly(ethyleneimine) for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Alkaline Electrolyte

Abstract

The present paper is devoted to preparation and characterization of catalyst for oxygen reduction reactrion (ORR) based on pyrolyzed metal-poly(ethyleneimine)(namely M-PEI, M=Co, Fe, Ce). Template method was applied to obtain catalyst with high surface area and porosity. Results of electrochemical characterization, which was performed using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) employing a rotating disk electrode (RDE), with emphasis on the activity of the catalyst are presented. The catalytic activity was found to depend strongly on the kind of transition metal and anion species. The relation of eletrocatalytic activity varies as follows: Co > Fe > Ce for transition metals and, nitrate > sulfate for anion species. Co-PEI, with onset potential at 0.1V, half-wave potential at 0V and average transferred electron number at 3.3, was found to show the highest ORR activity among the catalysts studied.