Recently in the laboratory of hydrogen fuel cell, faculty of Chemistry,
Development of non-platinum catalysts with high activity and practical durability in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has become a major focus area for the PEMFC research as a way of potentially reducing the currently prohibitive PEMFC cost.
They has been achieved a significant progress in the preparation of the polyaniline-derived oxygen-reduction non-platinum catalyst (PONC) and in research of the ORR mechanism by using it.
It had been found out previously that PONC obtained by pyrolyzing macrocycle complexes of transition metals at 500~1000°C in an inert atmosphere had a good catalytic activity toward oxygen reduction in acid media and the catalytic sites for oxygen reduction are pridinic type N-rich carbons.
They obtained the carbon supports covered with the conductive polymer by polymerizing aniline on the surface of carbon particles and then prepared PONC by pyrolyzing these supports in the presence of Fe-and Co-species and improved the activity and stability of this catalyst.
This PONC has a wide application by reducing the currently prohibitive PEMFC cost using as oxygen eletrodic catalyst instead of precious metal catalyst.
