Developments And Applications Of Graphene-based Non-noble Metal Catalysts For Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Abstract:In this paper, the performances of the complexes constituted by graphene and non-noble metal compounds used as oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts were studied. The catalytic activities of samples were improved through sandwiching acetylene black (AB) between GO sheets to mitigate the degree of GO and RGO stacking and doping nitrogen into the graphene. The compositions, morphologies and ORR catalytic activities of the obtained products were characterized and evaluated by XRD, XPS, BET, SEM, TEM, STEM and electrochemical tests.The morphology and BET test results of Co3O4/RGO/AB reveal that the introduction of AB can enhance the combination of Co3O4and RGO, and enlarge the specific surface area. The electrochemical results show that the catalytic activity of Co3O4/RGO/AB is higher than that of commercial Pt/C catalyst.LaCoO3/RGO was successfully synthesized through the program designed in this paper. The introduction of RGO can not only improve the catalytic activity of LaCoO3but also strengthen the anti-corrosion ability greatly.It was found from the XPS results that nitrogen was successfully doped into RGO in Co@CoO/N-RGO/AB and Co3O4/N-RGO/AB by heating under inert gas with melamine as the N resourse or alcoholthermal treating with ammonia as the N resourse. And the former N doping method can achieve abundant N doping and various N bonding configurations. The electrochemical tests indicate that the catalytic activities of Co3O4/N-RGO/AB and Co@CoO/N-RGO/AB are both improved by N doping. In the testing of aluminum air battery, these two materials both display super catalytic activities and bright application perspective.