Developing a highly active and cost-effective cathode electrocatalyst with strong stability for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is extremely necessary. In recent years, lots of inexpensive alternatives have been reported to possess decent ORR activities, including nonprecious metals and their alloys, carbon based materials, Fe-N-C centers, and transition metal oxides and their derivatives. Among them zirconium oxide (ZrO2), a valve-metal oxide transition metal oxide has gained growing interest with merits of abundance, ecofriendliness and strong resistance to corrosion. Regardless of these merits, ZrO2 ORR catalytic activity trails far behind Pt/C which stems from their poor conductivity. To circumvent this obstacle, carbon-based materials (with excellent conductivity and corrosion resistance were usually employed as supporters in depositing the nanostructured ZrO2, which markedly boosts ORR activity and stability. Several studies reported that incorporation of some transition metal ions or nitrogen could improve the conductivity and thereby effectively enhance the ORR efficiency of ZrO2 based systems without compromising the anti-corrosive performance of zirconia. Driven by aforesaid motivations, a facile wet impregnation method followed by thermal annealing in NH3 (anhydrous) approach was adopted to prepare Nitrogen doped ZrO2 nanoparticles on high surface area N-doped Ketjenblack (t-ZrO2:N). Prepared samples were subjected to a series of characterizations. The t-ZrO2:N sample displayed comparable electrocatalytic activity and better stability to the commercial Pt/C catalyst in alkaline medium.

Highly stable nitrogen doped tetragonal ZrO2 nanoparticles for oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline medium

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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