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Theoretical and experimental demonstration of the electrocatalytic activity of boron nitride thin films for oxygen reduction reaction

Date:
June 23, 2014
Source:
National Institute for Materials Science
Summary:
Hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells are the ultimate clean power-generating device, which extract electric power from hydrogen and oxygen with high efficiency and emit only water as waste. However, there are still many challenges to overcome before achieving wide use of this technology. Scientists have now successfully demonstrated a new approach toward a non-precious metal oxygen reduction catalyst for fuel cells.
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A Japanese research team has successfully demonstrated a new approach toward a non-precious metal oxygen reduction catalyst for fuel cells.

The research was conducted by a group of researchers led by Professor Kohei Uosaki, a NIMS Fellow at the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics and the Global Research Center for Environment and Energy based on Nanomaterials Science (both of which are affiliated with the National Institute for Materials Science) in partnership with another research group led by Professor Tetsuya Taketsugu at the Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University. The team advocated and successfully demonstrated a theory that when boron nitride (BN), which is originally an insulating material, is placed on a gold surface, it can function as an electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction -- an important reaction in fuel cells.

Hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells are the ultimate clean power-generating device, which extract electric power from hydrogen and oxygen with high efficiency and emit only water as waste. However, there are still many challenges to overcome before achieving wide use of this technology. One such challenge is the slow rate of the oxygen-reduction reaction at the oxygen electrode -- that is, low reaction efficiency. Platinum has been widely used as a catalyst for promoting this reaction. However, as platinum is expensive, limited in quantity and involves stability problems, efforts have been made worldwide toward the development of a new catalyst that can solve this challenge without using platinum or other precious metals. Yet, none of the catalysts that have been developed thus far has reached a satisfactory level. Accordingly, there has been a call for initiatives to develop a completely new type of catalyst, using materials that have never been thought of as catalyst materials.

The two research groups worked together on the development of a precious metal-free catalyst through a combination of theoretical and experimental approaches from the perspective of elements strategy. In their theoretical research, the researchers discovered that when BN, which is originally an insulating material, is placed on a gold surface, its electronic state changes, it becomes conductive, and oxygen molecules are absorbed on BN stably. They further calculated changes in energy at different stages in the oxygen-reduction reaction process on the surface and found that BN has the potential to function as an oxygen-reduction catalyst. Then, they prepared various types of BN (e.g. nanosheets, nanotubes) placed on a gold surface, and examined the activity for the oxygen-reduction reaction by a rotating disk electrode. They observed a maximum of about 270 mV positive shift for oxygen reduction current to be observed at the gold electrode. On the other hand, no such catalyst activity was observed when a carbon was used as the substrate. Thus, they demonstrated that BN-gold interaction is a key factor for BN to function as an electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction.

Although the new catalyst is still less reactive than platinum, the researchers succeeded in showing an extremely promising direction in the process of searching for and designing a new catalyst material, through the combination of theoretical calculation and experiments. This approach is expected to lead to the future development of materials for an electrode for fuel cells without using platinum.

This research was conducted as part of the "Elements Strategy Initiative for Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration: Creation of Precious Metal-Free Nano-Hybrid Catalyst" and the "Environmental Technology Development Program with the Use of Nanotechnology," sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.


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Materials provided by National Institute for Materials Science. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal References:

  1. Kohei Uosaki, Ganesan Elumalai, Hidenori Noguchi, Takuya Masuda, Andrey Lyalin, Akira Nakayama, Tetsuya Taketsugu. Boron Nitride Nanosheet on Gold as an Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction: Theoretical Suggestion and Experimental Proof. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2014; 136 (18): 6542 DOI: 10.1021/ja500393g
  2. Ganesan Elumalai, Hidenori Noguchi, Kohei Uosaki. Electrocatalytic activity of various types of h-BN for the oxygen reduction reaction. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2014; 16 (27): 13755 DOI: 10.1039/C4CP00402G

Cite This Page:

National Institute for Materials Science. "Theoretical and experimental demonstration of the electrocatalytic activity of boron nitride thin films for oxygen reduction reaction." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 June 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140623091643.htm>.
National Institute for Materials Science. (2014, June 23). Theoretical and experimental demonstration of the electrocatalytic activity of boron nitride thin films for oxygen reduction reaction. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140623091643.htm
National Institute for Materials Science. "Theoretical and experimental demonstration of the electrocatalytic activity of boron nitride thin films for oxygen reduction reaction." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140623091643.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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