One Step Synthesis of Me (Fe, Co, Ni) and Nitrogen co-doped Porous Graphene for ORR in Alkaline Electrolyte

Abstract

This article reports the influence of different transition metals (Fe, Co, Ni) on improving electrochemical property of porous nitrogen-doped graphene and their electrocatalytic activity toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline media. The catalysts were prepared through a simple one step synthesis method along with the high-temperature pyrolysis process. The electrocatalystic activity of the obtained catalysts for ORR was performed with cyclic voltammetry (CV) and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) employing a rotating disk electrode (RDE). In addition, the rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE) measurements were performed to survey the peroxide yield (H2O2%) and electron transfer number (n) on the Me (Fe, Co, Ni) and nitrogen co-doped graphene (ie., Me-PNG, Me = Fe, Co, Ni) catalyzed electrode to further study the ORR catalytic pathway of the catalysts. The electrochemical properties are found to depend strongly on the kinds of transition metals, where the Fe-PNG, with onset potential at 0.197 V and half-wave potential at 0.071 V, showed much better catalytic activity than Co-PNG and Ni-PNG.