Microwave-assisted synthesis of Fe–N–C catalysts using novel nitrogen precursors for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Abstract

The current study describes a facile, time-effective and cost-viable synthesis of highly efficient Fe–N–C catalysts tailored for PEMFC. In this work, three different Fe–N–C catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) have been synthesized by pyrolyzing different organic molecules in a microwave machine. The catalytic materials have been characterized using advanced techniques such as SEM, TEM, EDS, XPS, and BET analysis to elucidate their morphological, compositional, and surface properties. The fabricated materials i.e. Fe–N–C-Urea (Fe–N–C–U), Fe–N–C-Para-Phenylene Diamine (Fe–N–C-pPD) and Fe–N–C-5-Amino-1-(4′-Aminophenyl)-1,3,3-Trimethylindane (Fe–N–C-AAT) exhibit remarkable peak power densities, reaching as high as 0.96 W cm−2, 0.77 W cm−2 and 0.90 W cm−2, respectively, at a flow rate of 0.4 L min−1 of oxygen and 0.2 L min−1 of hydrogen, keeping the temperature constant at 80 °C. The current work emphasizes the deployment of facile and rapid synthetic protocol coupled with exploiting ingenious organic molecules and avoiding the application of any solvent.