ABSTRACT

The energy problem is closely related to the survival and development of human beings. Nowadays, the research of fuel cells is making rapid progress, but the bottleneck of the development of fuel cells is slow oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) of cathode. At present, it is difficult to develop a kind of oxygen reduction catalyst with high performance, low energy consumption and low pollution. Here, we synthesised Co₃O₄ nanocrystals loaded on a single graphene oxide layer via a convenient one-step hydrothermal method. According to the transmission electron microscopy characterisation tests, the average size of Co₃O₄ nanocrystals is 5 nm. Compared with the commercially available Pt/C catalyst, the obtained Co₃O₄/rGO catalyst demonstrates the same four-electron (4e⁻) oxygen reduction reaction, and the catalytic activity of ORR is significantly higher. This is due to the large surface area provided by the middle part of the composite catalyst Co₃O₄/rGO, which provides an effective mass transfer and electron transfer path for the catalyst.

摘要

能源问题与人类的生存和发展息息相关。如今，燃料电池的研究进展迅速，但燃料电池发展的瓶颈是阴极的慢氧还原反应（ORR）。目前，很难开发出一种高性能、低能耗、低污染的氧还原催化剂。在这里，我们通过方便的一步水热法合成了负载在单个氧化石墨烯层上的Co ₃ O _{4纳米晶体。}根据透射电子显微镜表征测试，Co ₃ O ₄纳米晶体的平均尺寸为5 nm。与市售的Pt/C催化剂相比，得到的Co ₃ O₄ /rGO催化剂表现出相同的四电子（4e ^-）氧还原反应，ORR的催化活性明显更高。_{这是由于复合催化剂Co 3} O ₄ /rGO的中间部分提供了较大的表面积，为催化剂提供了有效的传质和电子传递路径。