China Nonferrous Metallurgy

Alkaline fuel cells have attracted much attention in recent years due to their high energy conversion efficiency, relatively low operating temperature, and green green environment-friendly advantages. However, the sluggish kinetics of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode is a key limiting factor for alkaline fuel cells. It is of great significance to develop ORR catalysts with high activity, stability and low cost. In this study, a novel cobalt-based catalyst with two-dimensional leaf structure, denoted as Co@NC-L-Co_xZn_y, was prepared by direct pyrolysis of precursors with different proportions of Cobalt-Zinc bimetallic as metal sources. The morphology and structure of the catalysts were characterized by SEM, TEM, SAED, EDS-Mapping, XRD, XPS, BET, ICP-MS, and Raman. The electrochemical performance of Co@NC-L-Co_xZn_y was tested in an alkaline environment. The results show that Co@NC-L-Co₃Zn₁ exhibits a leaf-like structure with excellent electrocatalytic activity and stability. The E_on-set and E_1/2 in 0.1mol/L KOH electrolyte are 0.918V and 0.853V, respectively. After running for 10000s by chronoamperometry (i-t), 87.3% of the initial current is maintained, and its performance is comparable to that of commercial catalytic material 20wt% Pt/C.