Issue 3, 2023

Non-noble metals as activity sites for ORR catalysts in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs)

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have great potential to become the next generation green energy technique, but their application is limited by the slow kinetics of the cathode oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in acidic medium. Meanwhile, the high price of Pt-based catalysts, which are now widely used commercially, has raised the cost of PEMFCs. Therefore, non-noble metal ORR catalysts as alternatives to Pt-based group metals (PGM) have attracted much attention. However, there is still a big gap between the performance of non-noble metal catalysts and commercial Pt/C catalysts in acidic environment. Recently, it has been realized that the performance of catalysts is closely related to the structure of catalytically active sites. Inspired by this, in this review, we firstly introduced the development and breakthrough of non-noble metals as activity sites. We then briefly summarized their catalytic mechanisms, and put forward some suggestions on how to improve the activity and stability of non-noble metal ORR catalysts.

Keywords: ORR; Non-noble metal single atom catalysts; Active site; Fuel cell.

Graphical abstract: Non-noble metals as activity sites for ORR catalysts in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs)

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
05 Janv. 2023
Accepted
08 Marts 2023
First published
20 Apr. 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Ind. Chem. Mater., 2023,1, 388-409

Non-noble metals as activity sites for ORR catalysts in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs)

J. Tao, X. Wang, M. Xu, C. Liu, J. Ge and W. Xing, Ind. Chem. Mater., 2023, 1, 388 DOI: 10.1039/D3IM00002H

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements