The Development of a Highly Durable Fe-N-C Electrocatalyst With Favorable Carbon Nanotube Structures for the Oxygen Reduction in PEMFCs

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is a crucial route for energy saving, emission reduction and the development of new energy vehicles because of its high power density, high energy density as well as the low operating temperature which corresponds to fast starting and power matching. However, the rare and expensive Pt resource greatly hinders the mass production of fuel cell, and the development of highly active and durable non-precious metal catalysts toward the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in the cathode is considered to be the ultimate solution. In this article, a highly active and durable Fe-N-C catalyst was facilely derived from metal organic framework materials (MOFs), and a favorable structure of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were formed, which accounts for a desired good durability. The as-optimized catalyst has a half-wave potential of 0.84V for the ORR, which is comparable to that of commercial Pt/C. More attractively, it has good stabilities both in rotating disk electrode and single cell tests, which provides a large practical application potential in the replacement of Pt catalyst as the ORR electrocatalyst in fuel cells.