Studies of Bi-functional electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution and reduction reaction

Abstract

The oxygen evolution reaction, OER, and the oxygen reduction reaction, ORR, are very important reactions involve in many clean and sustainable energy conversion devices, as such water electrolyzers, fuel cells, and metal-air batteries. Despite the considerable progress in the understanding of these reactions, it is still necessary to overcome the kinetics barriers of the oxygen electrocatalysts. The main goal is the development of electrocatalysts with optimal characteristics for obtaining simultaneous high efficiencies for both the OER and the ORR. This project deals with the study of oxygen reactions in nanoparticles electrocatalysts, such as, composites of transitions metals, composed by nickel, iron, cobalt and manganese. The activities and stabilities of these composites for the OER and ORR will be compared with the state of art materials for these reactions, respectively, iridium oxide, IrO2, and polycrystalline platinum electrodes. (AU)