Performance evaluation of functionalized carbon aerogel as oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalyst in zinc-air cell

Abstract

The comparable catalytic activities of non-noble metal electrocatalysts are the prime to enable their breakthrough performances for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). In this work, the nitrogen-doped carbon aerogels are strategically functionalized with Ce/Fe elements. The increased content of pyridinic nitrogen from 16.71% to 20.28% coupled with a macro-porous structure result in an enhanced ORR catalytic performance. The performance evaluation shows that the ORR onset potential of the functionalized sample shifts from 0.893 V to 0.968 V comparing to the unfunctionalized sample. The open cell voltage reaches 1.450 V when the optimal catalyst is assembled into a zinc-air cell as the cathode, and such performance is comparable to the commercial Pt/C catalyst.