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Influence of chemical composition and amount of intermixed ionomer in the catalyst on the oxygen reduction reaction characteristics

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Abstract

Influence of chemical composition of the ionomers (polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) or Nafion®) on the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetics has been studied. The 5 wt% Nafion-Vulcan showed higher electrochemical activity toward ORR compared with that for the 5 wt% PVA-Vulcan. Four different Nafion® amounts were used to intermixing a carbide-derived carbon (CDC) or Pt-modified CDC catalysts and the highest electrochemical activity toward ORR was established for the 30 wt% Nafion-Pt/CDC catalyst. Influence of the different amounts of Nafion® ionomer in the catalyst is moderate compared to the effect of variation of the carbon support (Vulcan vs. CDC) or the ionomer (PVA vs. Nafion®). The Randles–Ševcik relationship was used to estimate the effective electrochemical active surface area (S eff) of the electrodes, depending on the chemical composition of the ionomer studied.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the European Spallation Source Project: Estonian Partition in ESS Instrument design, development; building and application for scientific research: SLOKT12026T, the Estonian institutional research grant No. IUT20-13, the Estonian Centre of Excellence in Science: TK117T “High-technology Materials for Sustainable Development”, the European Regional Development Fund: TK141 “Advanced materials and high-technology devices for energy recuperation systems”, the Estonian Energy Technology Program: SLOKT10209T, the Materials Technology Project: SLOKT12180T, NAMUR “Nanomaterials—research and applications” (3.2.0304.12-0397), and by personal research grant No. PUT55. The authors would like to thank Dr. Karmen Lust for providing critical comments and English corrections of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemistry, University of Tartu, 14a Ravila Str, 50411, Tartu, Estonia

    E. Härk, R. Jäger, I. Tallo, P. Möller, T. Romann, R. Kanarbik, V. Steinberg & E. Lust

  2. Soft Matter and Functional Materials, Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109, Berlin, Germany

    E. Härk

  3. Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, 1 W.Ostwaldi Str, 50411, Tartu, Estonia

    U. Joost

  4. Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, 14a Ravila Str, 50411, Tartu, Estonia

    K. Kirsimäe

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  1. E. Härk
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Correspondence to E. Lust.

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E. Härk, R. Jäger, P. Möller, T. Romann and E. Lust are members of ISE.

E. Härk and E. Lust are members of ECS.

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Härk, E., Jäger, R., Tallo, I. et al. Influence of chemical composition and amount of intermixed ionomer in the catalyst on the oxygen reduction reaction characteristics. J Solid State Electrochem 21, 2079–2090 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-017-3521-7

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