RESUMO
Identification of low cost, highly active, durable completely noble metal-free electro-catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in PEM based water electrolysis and metal air batteries remains one of the major unfulfilled scientific and technological challenges of PEM based acid mediated electro-catalysts. In contrast, several non-noble metals based electro-catalysts have been identified for alkaline and neutral medium water electrolysis and fuel cells. Herein we report for the very first time, F doped Cu1.5Mn1.5O4, identified by exploiting theoretical first principles calculations for ORR and OER in PEM based systems. The identified novel noble metal-free electro-catalyst showed similar onset potential (1.43 V for OER and 1 V for ORR vs RHE) to that of IrO2 and Pt/C, respectively. The system also displayed excellent electrochemical activity comparable to IrO2 for OER and Pt/C for ORR, respectively, along with remarkable long term stability for 6000 cycles in acidic media validating theory, while also displaying superior methanol tolerance and yielding recommended power densities in full cell configurations.
RESUMO
A novel electrode fabrication technique involving a manual scribing action of vertically aligned silicon coated multiwall carbon nanotubes (VASCNTs) on a copper foil have been developed as a viable approach to Li-ion battery electrodes. The scribed electrodes were prepared without the use of any conductive additives and binders, and they were directly assembled in a coin cell. These 'binder-less' scribed Si-CNT electrodes exhibited a very high discharge capacity in excess of 3000 mA h g(-1) and a low first cycle irreversible loss (FIR) (19%). In addition, the electrodes also showed good cyclability with capacity retention of 76% at the end of 50 cycles corresponding to a fade rate of 0.48% loss per cycle rendering the technique attractive for suitable Li-ion applications.