Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Vol.801, 72-76, 2017
Facile synthesis of mesoporous Fe-N-C electrocatalyst for high performance alkaline aluminum-air battery
Aluminum-air battery is one of the most promising systems to replace traditional fossil resources. In this report, an advanced and facile cathode catalyst of Fe-N-C electrocatalyst for aluminum-air battery is synthesized by calcining the mixture of Super P (SP), melamine and ferric chloride. The Fe contained catalyst among with the sample without Fe and the sample without N are both studied by linear polarization as catalysts compared with the commercial Pt/C catalysts. The Fe-N-C catalyst shows the ORR onset potential of - 0.09 V, approaching the commercial Pt/C (20 wt%) catalyst. Besides the excellent properties of ORR, Further electrochemical performance as air cathodes in a model battery were tested in galvanostatic discharge measurements, and the Fe-N-C catalyst exhibits a high discharge voltage of 1.33 V at the current density of 50 mA cm(-2). The profound study shows that N in carbon matrix and Fe-N-x species are both involved to provide active sites catalyzing reduction of oxygen. We believe the Fe-N-C catalyst could be a good and economic potential choice for the practical high power aluminum-air batteries.