Abstract
This mini-review presents a short account of materials with exceptional activity towards oxygen reduction reaction. Two main classes of catalytic materials are described, namely platinum group metal (PGM) catalyst and Non-precious metal catalyst. The classes are discussed in terms of possible application in low-temperature hydrogen fuel cells with proton exchange membrane and further commercialization of these devices. A short description of perspective approaches is provided and challenging issues associated with developed catalytic materials are discussed.
Highlights
Fossil fuel generation is gradually replaced with renewable energy generation to decrease the CO2 emission of the power system
A sluggish kinetics of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode side—difficult O2 activation, O-O bond cleavage and oxide removal—is limiting the further development of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) and other types of fuel cells such as direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) [14]. This well-known issue was addressed by many groups of researchers, the developed catalysts advance the path towards the process of fuel cell commercialization
The activity of platinum nanoparticles increases with increasing surface area, so smaller particles with high specific surface should be very active towards ORR
Summary
Fossil fuel generation is gradually replaced with renewable energy generation to decrease the CO2 emission of the power system. A sluggish kinetics of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode side—difficult O2 activation, O-O bond cleavage and oxide removal—is limiting the further development of PEMFCs and other types of fuel cells such as direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) [14] This well-known issue was addressed by many groups of researchers, the developed catalysts advance the path towards the process of fuel cell commercialization. The performance loss caused by fading of catalyst nanoparticles can be observed after a few hundred hours of fuel cell operation To overcome this problem, the promising catalyst surface modifications, e.g., highly ordered core-shell structure, in-situ carbonized carbon and organic functional groups, have been proposed. The synthesis methods include colloidal deposition, co-reduction, galvanic replacement reaction, seeded growth and pyrolysis
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