The Efficient Oxygen Reduction Catalysts Based on the Non-Noble Metal and Conducting Polymers

This paper describes the synthesis and assessment of a non-noble-metal electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The transition-metal-coordinating nitrogen-doped carbon catalyst (M-N/C) is prepared by supporting copper ion on carbon-coated poly(2,7-dimethyl-10,12-di(thiophen-2-yl)thieno[3',4':5,6]pyrazino[2,3-f][1,10]phenanthroline) (PDTPP) complex to offer Cu-PDTPP/C/GC. The materials including PDTPP, PDTPP/C, and Cu-PDTPP/C are characterized by CV (cyclic voltammetry), RDE (rotating disk electrode) to confirm their catalytic performances. Among the four materials, Cu-PDTPP/C shows the best catalytic performance with the direct reduction of oxygen to water directly by a four-electron (4e) transferred process. The morphologies and chemical compositions of PDTPP/C, Cu-PDTPP/C were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) methods respectively. it is revealed by the results that the copper ions have been coordinated to the composite and the M−N/C catalysts are successfully synthesized. According to these tests, this study essentially illustrate that Cu-PDTPP/C is an effective catalyst can be used for ORR in fuel cells, such as microbial fuel cells, which conducted in a aqueous neutral medium.