ChemElectroChem
ChemElectroChem
5 years ago

Promotional Effect of Fe Impurities in Graphene Precursors on the Activity of MnOX/Graphene Electrocatalysts for the Oxygen Evolution and Oxygen Reduction Reactions

Promotional Effect of Fe Impurities in Graphene Precursors on the Activity of MnOX/Graphene Electrocatalysts for the Oxygen Evolution and Oxygen Reduction Reactions
Wolfgang Schuhmann, Dulce M. Morales, Justus Masa, Corina Andronescu
Bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts were fabricated following a three-step synthesis method, which consisted of i) liquid-phase exfoliation of graphite in the presence of nitrogen-containing manganese macrocyclic complexes, using DMF as the dispersion medium under formation of few-layer graphene sheets. Subsequently, ii) solvent removal by vacuum filtration and drying, and iii) pyrolysis of the resulting composites under an inert gas atmosphere with subsequent mild calcination yielded manganese oxides embedded within a graphitic carbon matrix (MnOX/G). We further demonstrate that traces of Fe impurities in the used graphite result in enhanced electrocatalytic activity of the MnOX/G towards both the oxygen reduction and the oxygen evolution reactions, owing to synergistic interaction of the iron impurities with the species formed upon thermal decomposition of Mn macrocyclic complexes. Teaming up! A method for combining Mn-macrocyclic complexes with few-layer graphene is shown to produce active MnOX/G catalysts for reversible oxygen electrodes. It is demonstrated how the synergistic interaction between species formed during the synthesis and the Fe impurities contained in graphene flakes results in an enhanced electrocatalytic activity of MnOX/G catalysts towards both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) (see picture).

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1002/celc.201700496

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