Non-Precious Metal Carbon Catalysts containing Multinuclear Active SItes

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25708031
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Organic and hybrid materials
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Onoda Akira 大阪大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (60366424)
• Research Collaborator: Hayashi Takashi 大阪大学, 大学院工学研究科, 教授 (20222226)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 燃料電池 / カーボン触媒 / 電極触媒 / 多核金属錯体

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) currently represent one of the most promising technologies for energy conversion. It is desirable to replace the Pt catalysts used at both of the fuel cell electrodes with non-precious metal catalysts (NPMCs). We developed a high performance NPMC for four-electron ORR, which is appropriate for use at the cathode in PEFCs. Myoglobin, which contains heme, a natural iron N4-macrocyclic cofactor, and iron salen complexes are used as the catalyst source. It is found that the Mb-based NPMC pyrolyzed at 940 °C has the highest activity toward four-electron ORR with an onset potential of 0.84 V. Our study demonstrates that myoglobin and the colencomplhas excellent potential for use as a precursor of NPMCs in construction of PEFCs.

Free Research Field

錯体化学、生物無機化学、触媒化学