Pyrolysis of melamine-treated vitamin B12 as a non-precious metal catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction

Abstract

Active, inexpensive non-precious metal substitutes for current Pt-based catalysis are needed to reduce the cost of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). In this work, pyrolysis of a carbon black-supported melamine-treated vitamin B12 (py-B12-M/C) catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) establishes that the surface nitrogen content and nitrogen–carbon ratio strongly affect ORR activity. Under optimal conditions, the number of transferred electrons in py-B12-M/C and the hydrogen peroxide yield of its ORR are 3.95 and 2.5%, respectively.