Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon Nanofiber Supported Platinum as Promising Oxygen Reduction Reaction Electrocatalysts

Abstract

Heteroatoms doped Carbon materials have been proved as promising catalyst support material for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). In this paper, nitrogen-doped porous nanofibers (N-PCNF) were fabricated via cost effective electrospinning technique by blending the PI and PAN as precursors, followed by heat treatment procedures. The N-PCNFs were used as support to prepare platinum (Pt) catalyst (Pt/N-PCNFs). SEM figure indicated that the porous structures not only existed on the surface but also in the cross session of the fibers. XPS and TEM displayed that with the help of heteroatoms nitrogen, the fiber had rougher surface and more defective structure, contributing to the dispersion of Pt nanoparticles. The catalytic performance for ORR was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and liner sweep voltammetry (LSV) with a rotating disk electrode (RDE). According to the results, Pt/N-PCNF exhibited superior property (more positive onset potential and half-wave potential) than that of JM20. The excellent ORR activity of Pt/N-PCNF was attributed to the enriched nitrogen heteroatoms coordinated within the microstructure which increased the exposure of more active sites and dispersion of Pt nanoparticles.