Abstract
In this study, several peat-derived carbons (PDC) were synthesized using various carbonization protocols. It was found that depending on the carbonization method, carbons with very different surface morphologies, elemental compositions, porosities, and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activities were obtained. Five carbons were used as carbon supports to synthesize Co-N/PDC catalysts, and five different ORR catalysts were acquired. The surface analysis revealed that a higher nitrogen content, number of surface oxide defects, and higher specific surface area lead to higher ORR activity of the Co-N/PDC catalysts in acidic solution. The catalyst Co-N/C-2(ZnCl2), which was synthesized from ZnCl2-activated and pyrolyzed peat, showed the highest ORR activity in both rotating disk electrode and polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell tests. A maximum power density value of 210 mW cm−2 has been obtained. The results of this study indicate that PDCs are promising candidates for the synthesis of active non-platinum group metal type catalysts.
Highlights
The European Union aims to be climate neutral by 2050 (European Green Deal)
This is especially true in the case of non-platinum group metal (NPGM) type catalysts, where the usedcandidates carbon support cantoremarkably the biomass-derived carbons seem to be promising in order increase the affect efficiency final catalytic activity of fuel cell catalyst materials
The composition of the materials was analyzed by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) on an High-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM) Zeiss Merlin equipped with a Bruker EDX-XFlash® 6/30 detector (Bruker, Billerica, MA, USA) with an accelerating voltage of 8 kV
Summary
The European Union aims to be climate neutral by 2050 (European Green Deal). As a result, several initiatives will be carried out in order to protect the environment and boost the green economy [1,2,3]. Cost-effective and environmentally friendly omass-derived carbons seem to be promising candidates in order to increase the efficiency of fuel cell catalyst materials. This is especially true in the case of non-platinum group metal (NPGM) type catalysts, where the usedcandidates carbon support cantoremarkably the biomass-derived carbons seem to be promising in order increase the affect efficiency final catalytic activity [17,18,19,20,21]. Co-N/PDCs has been analyzed in a synthesized three-electrode system in an acidic solution, the acquiredcarbon resultscan were with each other [22].carbonization It was found prothat on silicon and carbide-derived becompared obtained by choosing suitable highly active catalysts to previously synthesized based cedures [22,23,24].
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