Production of platinum-free chelate catalyst materials as intermediate products and subsequent processing into electrocatalyst coatings as final products

摘要

A method for preparing a platinum-free chelate catalyst material as an intermediate product for selective electrocatalytic reduction of oxygen includes performing a low-temperature plasma treatment on a powdery form of the transition-metal chelate in a plasma reactor chamber having an inert plasma gas disposed therein. A plasma power, a plasma gas pressure, a plasma initialization and a treatment time of the low-temperature plasma treatment are selected so that molecules of the transition metal chelate are fragmented in the plasma and cross-link in a subsequent chemical reaction so as to form a carbon matrix and retain a basic chelate structure in a surrounding of the transition metal.