Synthesis and Characterization of Non-Precious Bimetallic Catalysts for Fuel Cells Using Kudzu Biomass Materials

Fuel cells such as proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) and anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFC) are devices that generate electricity as the result of an electrochemical reaction, with the only byproduct being water. State of the art PEMFC work in an acidic environment and require the use of expensive platinum-based catalysts to expedite the electrochemical reactions happening in the anode and cathode electrodes. Specifically, the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) occurring at the cathode electrode, necessitates high loadings of platinum catalysts to improve the efficiency of the cell. AEMFCs work in an alkaline environment which opens the possibility of using cheaper transition metals to form catalytic centers required for the ORR, which can potentially reduce the cost of the fuel cells. Typically, a non-precious metal ORR catalyst is formed by combining a metal source, a nitrogen source and a carbon source used as the support of the catalytic centers. In this work, we present the synthesis of ORR catalyst using iron, copper, cobalt and nickel as the metal source, an amino acid as the nitrogen source, and kudzu leaves as the precursor of the carbon support. Materials were characterized using the rotating ring disk electrode technique to determine their catalytic activity in alkaline electrolyte, and, in addition, BET studies were carried out to determine their surface area and pore size distribution.