Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy of Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) in a Rotating Disk Electrode Configuration: Effect of Ionomer Content and Carbon-Support

Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in acidic media is investigated at various potentials in a thin-film rotating disk electrode (TF-RDE) configuration using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The ionomer-free and ionomer-containing thin-film catalyst layers are composed of Pt black and carbon-supported Pt catalysts of different metal loadings (5 and 20 wt%). The simplest El spectrum consisting of an arc or a semi-circle is obtained at high potentials with ionomer-free Pt catalyst layers. The most complex spectrum consisting of a high frequency (HF) arc and two semi-circles is observed in the mixed diffusion-controlled region of the ionomer-containing catalyst layer with high loading of carbon-supported Pt. The nature of the El spectrum is decided by the constituents of the thin-film catalyst layer and by the operating potential. The evolution of the El spectra with ionomer and carbon contents is underlined. The effect of rotation rate (rpm) of the electrode on the impedance spectrum is also investigated. A series of equivalent circuits is required to completely describe the El spectra of ORR. The kinetic parameters and the electrochemical surface area of the catalysts are derived from the impedance spectrum. (C) The Author(s) 2015. Published by ECS. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 License (CC BY-NC-ND, hup://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is not changed in any way and is properly cited. For permission for commercial reuse, please email: oa@electrochem.org. All rights reserved.