Molecular Architecture of Cobalt Porphyrin Multilayers on Reduced Graphene Oxide Sheets for High-Performance Oxygen Reduction Reaction

摘要

Thanks to their lightweight, highly efficient, modular and scalable properties, polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have long been thought to be a promising candidate for applications in transportation and in both stationary and portable electronics. Unfortunately, despite the above advantages, until now the fuel-cell technologies have failed to reach mass commercialization, and the main problems include short operational time and high cost of the materials used. For example, platinum-based materials are generally believed to be ideal catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathodes of PEMFCs; however, their disadvantages, for example, low tolerance to methanol fuel, high price and scarcity, limit the practical application of platinum-based catalysts. Therefore, replacement of platinum-based materials with non-precious-metal catalysts, which are of low cost, high catalytic activity, and robust, has become one of the key issues for the realization of mass applications of PEMFCs.