Oxygen reduction performance study of Fe/Ni doped PAAM/Agar double net hydrogel carbon materials

Abstract The electrocatalytic performance plays a pivotal role in the widespread adoption of DMFCs. Hence, it is imperative to develop electrocatalysts with superior performance for oxygen reduction reactions. In this study, carbon materials doped with Fe and Ni were synthesized. The characterization results revealed that the morphology, pore size, pore capacity, and BET of the catalysts varied with different doping elements, thereby affecting their performance. Linear Scan Voltammetry demonstrated that the doped samples (Ni−NC, Fe−NC, Fe−Ni−NC) exhibited varying degrees of enhancement in ORR activity compared to the undoped NC samples containing only Fe and Ni. Among them, the Fe−Ni−NC catalyst showed remarkable methanol tolerance (67.3 %) and a lower Tafel slope (93.24 mV dec −1 ) in comparison to the Pt/C catalyst (47.9 %). Moreover, RRDE measurements indicated a 3.31 % H 2 O 2 yield and n of 3.93 for Fe−Ni−NC. Additionally, in DMFC tests conducted at 20 and 50 °C, Fe−Ni−NC approached the performance of the Pt/C catalyst cathode.