Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T02:49:06.030Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Electronic Structures of Non-Pt Carbon Alloy Catalysts for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells Revealed by Synchrotron Radiation Analyses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2011

Masaharu Oshima
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Organization, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
Hideharu Niwa
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
Makoto Saito
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
Masaki. Kobayashi
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Organization, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
Koji Horiba
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Organization, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
Yoshihisa Harada
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Organization, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
Kiyoyuki Terakura
Affiliation:
Research Center for Integrated Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science Technology (JAIST), 1-1 Asahidai, Nomi Ishikawa 923-1292, Japan
Takashi Ikeda
Affiliation:
Quantum Beam Science Directorate, Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), SPring-8, 1-1-1 Kouto, Sayo-cho, Sayo-gun, Hyogo 679-5148, Japan
Jun-ichi Ozaki
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical & Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Gunma University, 1-5-1 Tenjin-cho, Kiryu, Gunma 376-8515, Japan
Yuta Nabae
Affiliation:
Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan
Seizo Miyata
Affiliation:
Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan
Get access

Abstract

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) mechanism of non-Pt catalysts was elucidated by investigating electronic structures of carbon alloy catalysts (CACs) for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). For metal phthalocyanine-based carbon alloy catalysts with 1-2% of nitrogen and less than 0.1% of Co or Fe, photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), and X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS) have revealed that Co or Fe metal sites are not the ORR active site, whereas the carbon atoms adjacent to graphitic nitrogens at a zigzag edge of graphite may act as the ORR active site, which is in good agreement with first principles calculations. These studies have also revealed that the zigzag edges, detected as a XAS shoulder component, are well evolved for catalysts pyrolyzed at 600°C, which show the maximum ORR activity. Based on these analyses, we have realized significantly improved carbon alloy based ORR performance, up to about 70 % of that with Pt catalysts. Further, to analyze the electronic structure of CACs during operation, we constructed a new in situ soft X-ray emission spectroscopy system with very high energy resolution (ΔE) of 120 meV at 640 eV at the University of Tokyo beamline BL07LSU in SPring-8.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Jasinski, R., Nature 201, 1212 (1964).Google Scholar
2. Bashyam, R. and Zelenay, P., Nature 443, 63, (2006).Google Scholar
3. Ozaki, J., Kimura, N., Anahara, T., and Oya, A., Carbon 45, 1847 (2007). J. Ozaki et al., Electrochimica Acta 55, 1864(2010).Google Scholar
4. Bashyam, R. et al. ., Nature 443, 63 (2006).Google Scholar
5. Lefèvre, M., Proietti, E., Jaouen, F., and Dodelet, J., Science 324, 71 (2009).Google Scholar
6. Shao, Y., Sui, J., Yin, G., and Gao, Y., Appl. Catal. B: Environ. 79, 89 (2008).Google Scholar
7. Gong, K., Du, F., Xia, Z., Durstock, M., and Dai, L., Science 323, 760 (2009).Google Scholar
8. Nabae, Y., Malon, M., Lyth, S.M., Moriya, S., Matsubayashi, K., Islam, N.M., Kuroki, S., Kakimoto, M., Ozaki, J., and Miyata, S., Carbon 48, 2613 (2010).Google Scholar
9. Dai, H. et al. ., Chem. Phys. Lett. 260, 471 (1996).Google Scholar
10. Fujita, M., Wakabayashi, K., Nakada, K., and Kusakabe, K., J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 65, 1920 (1996).Google Scholar
11. Novoselov, K.S. et al. ., Nature 438, 197 (2005).Google Scholar
12. Ikeda, T., Boero, M., Huang, S., Terakura, K., Oshima, M., and Ozaki, J., J. Phys. Chem. C 112, 14706 (2008).Google Scholar
13. Niwa, H., Kobayashi, M., Horiba, K., Harada, Y., Oshima, M., Terakura, K., Ikeda, T., Koshigoe, Y., Ozaki, J., Miyata, S., Ueda, S., Yamashita, Y., Yoshikawa, H., and Kobayashi, K., J. Power Sources 196, 1006 (2011).Google Scholar
14. Casanovas, J. et al. ., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 118, 8071 (1996).Google Scholar
15. Toda, T. et al. ., J. Electrochem. Soc. 146, 3750 (1999).Google Scholar
16. Niwa, H., Horiba, K., Harada, Y., Oshima, M., Ikeda, T., Terakura, K., Ozaki, J., and Miyata, S., J. Power Sources 187, 93 (2009).Google Scholar
17. Huang, Sheng-Feng, Terakura, K., Ozaki, T., Ikeda, T., Boero, M., Oshima, M., Ozaki, J., and Miyata, S., Phys. Rev. B 80, 235410 (2010).Google Scholar
18. Entani, S. et al. ., Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 153126 (2006).Google Scholar
19. Joseph Joly, V.L., et al. ., Phys. Rev. B 81, 245428 (2010).Google Scholar
20. Saito, M. et al. ., the 215th Meeting of ElectroChemical Society, Abstract #265, San Francisco.Google Scholar
21. Our recent theoretical analysis suggests that the edge carbons are indeed the source of the shoulder E* although the zigzag edge states may not be directly linked to it. The details will be published elsewhere. Google Scholar
22. Wu, L., Nabae, Y., Moriya, S., Matsubayashi, K., Islam, N. M., Kuroki, S., Kakimoto, M., Ozaki, J., and Miyata, S., Chem. Commun., 46, 63776379 (2010).Google Scholar
23. Kobayashi, Y., Fukui, K., Enoki, T., and Kusakabe, K., Phys. Rev. B 73, 125415 (2006).Google Scholar
24. Sugawara, K., Sato, T., Souma, S., Takahashi, T. and Suematsu, H., Phys. Rev. B 73, 04512400 (2006).Google Scholar
25. Kobayashi, M., Harada, Y., Oshima, M., Senba, Y., Ohashi, H., Tokushima, T., Horikawa, Y., and Shin, S., VUVX 2010 Satellite Meeting (2010), Saskatoon.Google Scholar