Porous and Conductive Fibrous Carbon for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Alkaline Media

Abstract

Development of an efficient oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst is a crucial challenge for modern electrochemistry. Herein, a new electrocatalyst, FeAg-CNF (CNF, carbon nanofiber), was fabricated via simple electrospinning and subsequent calcinations as an outstanding ORR electrocatalytic catalyst. FeAg-CNF was subjected to water vapor activation to artificially develop the pore structures and excavate more effective sites. The resultant activated FeAg-CNF (A-FeAg-CNF) exhibits excellent activity and durability, which were better than those of commercial Pt/C. Based on our results, we conclude that the improvement in A-FeAg-CNF is caused by the enhanced pore structure and electrical conductivity. We believe that this study suggests a new insight and is helpful to designing carbon-based ORR catalysts for energy storage and conversion application fields.