Cycle life limit of carbon-based electrodes for rechargeable metal–air battery application

A high-performance, bifunctional oxygen electrode catalysed with palladium and nickel-iron hexacyanoferrate

“…Perovskite catalysts mixed with high surface area carbon are some of the most promising bifunctional catalyst materials produced to date but reported data varies depending on the type of perovskite and operational conditions. Velraj et al [18] reported that the performance of electrodes prepared with perovskite catalyst (La0.6Ca0.4CoO3 or Sr0.5Sm0.5CoO3-δ) with different Vulcan XC-72R carbon black at ±50 mA cm -2 (OER and ORR at +0.65 V and -0.2 V vs. Hg/HgO, respectively) in 8.5 mol dm -3 KOH, was limited to 100-110 cycles due to degradation of the carbon support. The catalyst maintained its catalytic activity and the authors suggested that alternative non-carbon supports need to be developed, such as Nb-doped TiO2 nanoparticles [19] or Ebonex [20].…”

A Review of Carbon-Composited Materials as Air-Electrode Bifunctional Electrocatalysts for Metal–Air Batteries

“…Two typical representatives of perovskite oxides with a partial A-site substitution, La 0.6 Ca 0.4 CoO 3 (LCC) and Sr 0.5 Sm 0.5 CoO 3-δ (SSC) have been combined with carbon black to form two different carbon-supported perovskite oxides (C-LCC and C-SSC) for rechargeable MABs [11,130]. In a comparison of their bifunctionality using graphitized Vulcan XC-72R as a reference, obtained cathodic polarization curves in a three-electrode cell with an 8.5 M KOH solution revealed that the C-SSC composite cathode provided better ORR activities that the C-LCC cathode and both cathodes exhibited better ORR activities than the graphitized Vulcan XC-72R cathode.…”

“…In cycling performance tests under 53 mA cm −2 , C-SSC ran for 106 cycles at − 0.3 V, whereas C-LCC only ran for ~ 68 cycles at − 0.3 V. The graphitized Vulcan XC-72R exhibited unsatisfactory cycling performances because of its poor OER capabilities. Later, Velraj and Zhu [11] also prepared untreated Vulcan XC-72R supported LCC and SSC and their results showed that because of the better corrosion resistance of graphitized carbon, graphitized Vulcan-based electrodes can provide more than twice the cycle life of untreated carbon-based electrodes. These results confirm that for carbon-supported perovskite oxide composites, the enhancement of catalytic activity and durability toward ORR and OER are related to the structure and properties of the carbon and perovskite oxides, as well as the synergistic effects between them.…”

“…Normally, the air-electrode catalyst layer for both ORR and OER is a matrix structure containing primarily of catalyst particles and/or carbon particle-supported catalyst particles and ionomers [4,5,11,12]. To synthesize these catalysts and fabricate these catalyst layers, different nanotechnologies, associated characterization techniques as well as performance validation methods have been carried out to significantly optimize the morphology and surface area of these advanced nanostructured catalysts to obtain high catalytic activity and stability.…”

A one‐step way to novel carbon‐niobium nitride nanoparticles for efficient oxygen reduction

“…We have to recognize that energy crisis have become the major problem in our society because of the development of modern industry in the past decades. Therefore, new energy conversion systems such as regenerative fuel cell and rechargeable metal‐air battery are more and more important due to their environmental benefits, high‐energy storage capacity, and low price compare to traditional energy . The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts play an essential role in such devices and have been widely studied by scientists around the world.…”