Synthesis of Fe-Cu Bi-functional Catalysts by Solution Plasma Process for Li-air Battery Application
O. L. Li1,2,3, R. Takahashi1, K. Urashima3,4,5, and N. Saito1,2,3
1Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Japan
2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Nagoya University, Japan
3Green Mobility Collaboration Research Center, Nagoya University, Japan
4National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP), Japan
5Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan
Abstract- This research reported an innovative method to synthesize inexpensive and bi-functional catalyst electrode material for the application in Li-air battery. Non-novel metal, Cu and Fe were served, respectively, as alternative Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) and Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER). Solution Plasma Process was applied to synthesized Cu-Fe metal nanoparticles and carbon nanoparticles simultaneously. SPP was generated in benzene 100 mL using a bipolar pulse power supply. Iron and copper of diameter 1.0 mm were used for the discharge electrode and precursor of the bimetallic nanoparticles. Solution was reacted and stirred continuously for 20 minutes. Based on the amount of electrode consumption and ICP-AES analysis, the percentage of Cu and Fe supported on carbon were respectively, 2.8 and 1.0 wt%. The diameter of metal nanoparticles was approximately 10 nm, where the carbon nanoparticles ranged between 20-30 nm. From XRD analyses, the presences of Cu, Fe and CuFe2O4 were confirmed. In the performance of cyclic voltammetry, Fe and Cu nanoparticles showed the catalytic activity, respectively, for ORR and OER, at -0.38 and above 0.5 V. In the case of Fe-Cu bimetallic nanoparticles, it showed the combined catalytic activities of the single particles.
Keywords-Solution plasma, catalysts, oxygen reduction reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, Li-air battery