Investigating the application of Fe,Co-N-C as the cathode of Single PEMFC

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are environmentally friendly energy converters thatuse hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity. Recently this device has been considered a goodsubstitution for fossil fuel combustion in various applications such as cars and backup powers. Onechallenge preventing these fuel cells from being commercialized is the sluggish oxygen reductionreaction (ORR), which takes place at the cathode side. The common electrocatalyst for this reaction isplatinum-based and since platinum is a costly element and also rare to find, scientists are trying to findalternatives for them. Metal-organic frameworks are a type of microporous or mesoporous crystallinecomposite materials made of metal ions or metal clusters that are connected by organic linkers. Forpreparing a MOF-based electrocatalyst, the MOF precursor of this material must be pyrolyzed underhigh-temperature heat treatment. The porous crystal structure of MOF has unique and adjustablechemical properties and thus can act as an ORR non-precious metal electrocatalyst. In this work, aMOF-based ORR electrocatalyst (Fe,Co-N-C) has been synthesized and its performance in a singlePEM fuel cell has been investigated. The Structure and morphology, and electrocatalytic performanceof Fe,Co-N-C have examined via the Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) imagesand fuel cell test station, respectively. The fully polyhedral structure of nanocrystals confirms theformation of Fe,Co-N-C. According to the IVW curve, the maximum power density of the catalystwas ۲۶۶ mW/cm۲, and the current density at ۰.۶ V was ۲۵۵ mA/cm۲.