Electro-oxidation of mixed reactants of ethanol and formate on Pd/C in alkaline fuel cells

Direct ethanol fuel cells have attracted attention as an alternative energy technology due to several advantages such as high theoretical energy density and abundant supply of ethanol.In spite of the advantages,commercialization of direct ethanol fuel cells is hampered by the relatively low performance caused by its slow oxidation kinetics and difficulty of complete oxidation.In this study,formate,which has relatively faster oxidation kinetics,was mixed with ethanol to compensate the latter’s sluggish kinetics.Effects of p H,concentration,scan rate,and temperature on the mixed reactants oxidation on Pd were investigated by electrochemical experiments such as potential sweep and potentiostatic methods.Furthermore,the potential of the mixed reactants as fuel was evaluated by single cell experiments.As a result,we demonstrate that mixing formate with ethanol results in enhanced power performance in a single cell system.

Al-incorporation into Li7La3Zr2O12 solid electrolyte keeping stabilized cubic phase for all-solid-state Li batteries

We observe the influence of AI occupancies in Li sites on the formation process of the garnet solid elec- trolyte of Li_7La_3Zr_2O_12 （LLZO）. A direct incorporation of AI is first promoted in a Li-insufficient garnet solid electrolyte during the calcination process of 850 ℃ and then the cubic phase of LLZO is obtained after successive annealing step of 1000 ℃. Comparing to pristine LLZO, AI incorporated LLZO shows less formation of Li_2CO_3, keeping crystallographic and physicochemical properties. This AI incorporation im- proves both the ionic conductivity and interfacial resistance to poisoning procedure.

Positively charged carbon electrocatalyst for enhanced power performance of L-ascorbic acid fuel cells

Carbon surface with large oxygen and carbon ratio(O/C) indicated an outstanding electro-catalytic activity toward L-ascorbic acid oxidation, compared to platinum group metals. However, interrelation of surface functional groups and its electro-catalytic activity is still unclear. In this paper, we prepared different levels of oxidized carbons by a simple acid treatment and investigated the correlation between the surface oxygen functional groups of acid-treated carbon and electro-catalytic activity in an electrooxidation of L-ascorbic acid. Positively charged carbon was demonstrated by lone pair electron of oxygen from valence band spectra study. It was revealed that the positively charged carbon, especially involved in carbonyl, showed enhanced the electro-catalytic activity through both better adsorption of negatively charged reactants and lowered LUMO by electronegativity of oxygen.

Development of high quality Fe_3O_4/rGO composited electrode for low energy water treatment

Electrochemical water treatment is an attractive technology for water desalination and softening due to its low energy consumption. Especially, capacitive Deionization(CDI) is promising as a future technology for water treatment. Graphene(rGO) has been intensively studied for CDI electrode because of its advantages such as excellent electrical conductivity and high specific surface area. However, its 2D dimensional structure with small specific capacitance, high resistance between layers and hydrophobicity degrades ion adsorption efficiency. In this work, we successfully prepared uniformly dispersed Fe3O4/rGO nanocomposite by simple thermal reactions and applied it as effective electrodes for CDI. Iron oxides play a role in uniting graphene sheets, and specific capacitance and wettability of electrodes are improved significantly;hence CDI performances are enhanced. The hardness removal of Fe3O4/rGO nanocomposite electrodes can reach 4.3 mg/g at applied voltage of 1.5V, which is 3 times higher than that of separate r GO electrodes.Thus this material is a promising candidate for water softening technology.

Atomic layer deposition of ultrathin layered TiO_2 on Pt/C cathode catalyst for extended durability in polymer electrolyte fuel cells

This study shows the preparation of a TiO2 coated Pt/C（TiO2/Pt/C） by atomic layer deposition（ALD）,and the examination of the possibility for TiO2/Pt/C to be used as a durable cathode catalyst in polymer electrolyte fuel cells（PEFCs）. Cyclic voltammetry results revealed that TiO2/Pt/C catalyst which has 2 nm protective layer showed similar activity for the oxygen reduction reaction compared to Pt/C catalysts and they also had good durability. TiO2/Pt/C prepared by 10 ALD cycles degraded 70% after 2000 Accelerated degradation test, while Pt/C corroded 92% in the same conditions. TiO2 ultrathin layer by ALD is able to achieve a good balance between the durability and activity, leading to TiO2/Pt/C as a promising cathode catalyst for PEFCs. The mechanism of the TiO2 protective layer used to prevent the degradation of Pt/C is discussed.

碱性介质中碳纳米管FeNi复合物上电催化析氧反应(英文)

Non-noble metals such as Fe and Ni have comparable electrocatalytic activity and stability to that of Ir and Ru in an oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In this study, we synthesized carbon nanofibers with embedded FeNi composites (FeNi-CNFs) as OER electrocatalysts by a facile route comprising electrospinning and the pyrolysis of a mixture of metal precursors and a polymer solution. FeNi-CNFs demonstrated catalytic activity and stability that were better than that of 20 wt% Ir on Vulcan carbon black in oxidizing water to produce oxygen in an alkaline media. Physicochemical and electrochemical characterization revealed that Fe and Ni had synergistic roles that enhanced OER activity by the uniform formation and widening of pores in the carbon structure, while the CNF matrix also contributed to the increased stability of the catalyst.

High-temperature liquid Sn-air energy storage cell

A new type of a high temperature liquid metal-air energy storage cell based on solid oxide electrolyte has been successfully demonstrated at 750 ℃ by feeding metal Sn. In order to understanding the initial size effect of metal as a liquid fuel, we report here the impact of the thermal and electrochemical oxidation behavior of nano Sn （-100 nm）, comparing with micro-sized （-5 μm） and macro-sized （4350 μm） Sn. The thermogravimetric analysis and the monitoring OCV test indicate that the distinct property of nano-sized Sn results in a favorable thermal oxidation behavior near the melting point and a promising power performance due to enhanced fuel transport to the anode. However, the accumulated Sn oxide at the reaction interface during a discharge test towards the limitation of further electrochemical oxidation.

Solution-processed highly adhesive graphene coatings for corrosion inhibition of metals

The corrosion of metals can be induced by different environmental and operational conditions,and protecting metals from corrosion is a serious concern in many applicatiions.The developme nt of new materials and/or tech no logies to improve the efficie ncy of anti-corrosi on coati ngs has attracted ren ewed in terest.In this study,we develop a protective coati ng composed of a bilayer structure of reduced graphe ne oxide(RGO)/graphene oxide(GO)applied to Cu plates by spray-coating and subsequent annealing.The annealing of the GO/Cu plates at 120℃produces a bilayer structure of RGO/GO by the partial reducti on of the spray-coated GO layer.This in duces superior corrosion resista nee and adhesi on strength compared to those of GO/Cu and RGO/Cu plates because of the hydrophobic n ature of the RGO surface exposed to the surroundings and the formation of Cu-O bonds with the O-based functional groups of GO.This approach provides a viable and scalable route for using graphene coatings to protect metal surfaces from corrosion.

Multifunctional Ir–Ru alloy catalysts for reversal-tolerant anodes of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

To address the problem of fuel starvation in fuel-cell electric vehicles,which causes cell voltage reversal and results in cell failure when repeated continuously,we developed a reversal-tolerant anode(RTA) to promote water oxidation in preference to carbon corrosion.Graphitized carbon-supported Ir-Ru alloys with different compositions are employed as RTA catalysts in an acidic polyol solution and are shown to exhibit composition-dependent average crystallite sizes of <5.33 nm.The adopted approach allows the generation of relatively well-dispersed Ir-Ru alloy nanoparticles on the carbon support without severe agglomeration.The activity of IrRu_(2)/C for the hydrogen oxidation reaction is 1.10 times that of the stateof-the-art Pt/C catalyst.Cell reversal testing by simulation of fuel starvation reveals that the durability of IrRu_(2)/C(~7 h) significantly exceeds that of the conventional Pt/C catalyst(~10 min) and is the highest value reported so far.Thus,the developed Ir-Ru alloy catalyst can be used to fabricate practical RTAs and replace Pt catalysts in the anodes of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells.

Charge transfer in graphene/polymer interfaces for CO2 detection

Understanding charge transfer processes between graphene and functional materials is crucial from the perspectives of fundamental sciences and potential applications, including electronic devices, photonic devices, and sensors. In this study, we present the charge transfer behavior of graphene and amine-rich polyethyleneimine （PEI） upon CO2 exposure, which was significantly improved after introduction of hygroscopic polyethylene glycol （PEG） in humid air. By blending PEI and PEG, the number of protonated amine groups in PEI was remarkably increased in the presence of water molecules, leading to a strong electron doping effect on graphene. The presence of CO2 gas resulted in a large change in the resistance of PEI/PEG-co-functionalized graphene because of the dramatic reduction of said doping effect, reaching a maximum sensitivity of 32% at 5,000 ppm CO2 and an applied bias of 0.1 V in air with 60% relative humidity at room temperature. This charge transfer correlation will facilitate the development of portable graphene-based sensors for real-time gas detection and the extension of the applications of graphene-based electronic and photonic devices.