Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Commons^™

Rate-Determining Step And Active Sites Probing For Platinum-Group-Metal Free Cathode Catalyst In Fuel Cell, Yechuan Chen

Chemical and Biological Engineering ETDs

With the increasing demand on renewable energy, the fuel cell has attracted more and more interests because of its large power density and controllable size. However, the insufficiency of element abundance and unstable expensive price of conventional platinum-based electrocatalysts used in anode and cathode makes it essential to find their substitutes. As one of the most promising candidates to be used in cathode for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), iron-nitrogen-carbon (Fe-N-C) catalysts have been widely investigated and get commercialized recently, but still lacks comprehensive understanding on the kinetic mechanism.

This dissertation has been divided into three parts with a discussion on …