Preparation of non-precious-metal cathode catalyst by multi-step pyrolysis of polymer precursors containing iron and nitrogen sources

Abstract

One major problem for polymer electrolyte fuel cells in commercial applications is the cost and scarcity of platinum, which is used as the cathode catalyst. It is extremely important to develop non-precious-metal cathode catalysts. Our research group has been developing non-precious-metal cathode catalysts by pyrolyzing polymer precursors containing Fe, N and C. This article describes the recent progress of our study on catalyst preparation from a mixture of iron phthalocyanine and phenolic resin, and polyimide nano-particles containing Fe(acac)₃.