Electrochemical Performance of Nickel Hydroxide/Activated Carbon Supercapacitors Using a Modified Polyvinyl Alcohol Based Alkaline Polymer Electrolyte

Polyvinyl alcohol （PVA）-sodium polyacrylate （PAAS）-KOH-H2O alkaline polymer electrolyte film with high ionic conductivity was prepared by a solution-casting method. Polymer Ni（OH）2/activated carbon （AC） hybrid supercapacitors with different electrode active material mass ratios （positive to negative） were fabricated using this alkaline polymer electrolyte, nickel hydroxide positive electrodes, and AC negative electrodes. Galvanostatic charge/ discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy （EIS） methods were used to study the electrochemical performance of the capacitors, such as charge/discharge specific capacitance, rate charge/discharge ability, and charge/discharge cyclic stability. Experimental results showed that with the decreasing of active material mass ratio m（Ni（OH）2）/m（AC）, the charge/discharge specific capacitance increases, but the rate charge/discharge ability and the charge/discharge cyclic stability decrease.

Highly efficient Fe/N/C catalyst using adenosine as C/N-source for APEFC

An environmentally friendly precursor, adenosine, has been used as a dual source of C and N to synthesize nitrogen-doped carbon catalyst with/without Fe. A hydrothermal carbonization method has been used and water is the carbonization media. The morphology of samples with/without Fe component has been compared by HRTEM, and the result shows that Fe can promote the graphitization of carbon. Further electro-chemical test shows that the oxygen reduction reaction（ORR） catalytic activity of Fe-containing sample（C–Fe N） is much higher than that of the Fe-free sample（C–N）. Additionally, the intermediates of C–Fe N formed during each synthetic procedure have been thoroughly characterized by multiple methods,and the function of each procedure has been discussed. The C–Fe N sample exhibits high electro-catalytic stability and superior electro-catalytic activity toward ORR in alkaline media, with its half-wave potential 20 mV lower than that of commercial Pt/C（40 wt%）. It is further incorporated into alkaline polymer electrolyte fuel cell（APEFC） as the cathode material and led to a power density of 100 m W/cm;.

Improving the Catalytic Efficiency of NiFe-LDH/ATO by Air Plasma Treatment for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Developing efficient catalysts toward the oxygen evolution reaction(OER)is important for water splitting and rechargeable metal-air batteries.Although NiFe oxides are considered as potentially applicable catalysts in the alkaline media,there are still a limited numbers of researches working on membrane electrode assembly(MEA)fed with pure water due to their poor electrical conductivity.In this work,antimony doped tin oxide(ATO)has been employed as conductive supports where NiFe layered double hydroxide uniformly dispersed[named NiFe-LDH(layered double hydroxide)/ATO].The catalysts have been synthesized by a one-step co-precipitation method,and then NiFe-LDH/ATO-air plasma was obtained through mild air plasma treatment.According to XPS analysis,binding energies of Ni2p and Fe2p were shifted negatively.Moreover,a new signal of low oxygen coordination appeared on O1s spectrum after air plasma treatment.These XPS results indicated that oxygen vacancies(Ov)were generated after air plasma treatment.Electrochemical measurement indicated that the vacancy-rich NiFe-LDH/ATO-air plasma exhibited better performance than NiFe-LDH/ATO not only in 1 mol/L KOH solutions but also in an alkaline polymer electrolyte water electrolyzer(APEWE)fed with deionized water.This work provides a feasible way to design practical catalysts used in electrochemical energy conversion systems by choosing corrosion resistance supports and defect engineering.