The effect of thermal-gas-chemical treatment of carbon black on electrocatalytic activity of electrodes in alkaline fuel cells

摘要

In recent years, various metal-air sources of electric current have attracted considerable interest. When an alkaline fuel cell is devised, great emphasis is made on the development of a cathode catalyst because characteristics of the cathode strongly determine the operation of the entire device. In this study, properties of the gas-diffusion electrode of an alkaline fuel cell were studied using the Fe-Co-N-containing pyrocatalyst, which was synthesized in the presence of a porous nanocomposite based on carbon black. Pore structure features of the nanocomposite material made it possible to increase operational stability of the alkaline fuel cell. Specific power of the gas-diffusion cathodes prepared with such a material reaches 335 mW/cm~2, which is higher at least by 10% as compared to cathodes with the pyrocatalyst based on Co porphyrins and carbon black VulcanXC 72.