Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is the major component that lowers the efficiency of fuel cells due to its high overpotential. There have been a lot of efforts to replace the widely used platinum catalysts because of the high cost, and the cobalt complexes with various nitrogen-containing ligands were found to be effective catalysts for ORR. Covalent functionalization of carbon nanotubes by 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of nitrile oxides was successfully conducted to install bipyridine structures, and cobalt complexes were synthesized. The high conductivity and robustness of the carbon nanotube networks help reduce oxygen efficiently at the immobilized catalyst centers.

Functionalized carbon nanotubes for electrocatalytic oxygen reduction

245th National Meeting (2013)

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