Abstract:

Commercial platinum carbon catalysts are expensive, and thus the development of non-platinum materials is a key step to promote the commercialization of fuel cells. In this paper, the research background of electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells has been introduced firstly, then the catalysts conformed by non-noble metals, non-metals and composite materials have been introduced respectively, and the active sites and catalytic mechanism of various catalysts have been briefly reviewed. Among them, the nitrogen carbides of transition metal, with the advantages of low cost, high catalytic activity and excellent stability, are the most promising to replace the precious metal Pt for the catalysts. The doping of heteroatoms can change the surface charge distribution and hence enhance the catalytic activity of carbon materials. By effectively combining the transition metal nitrogen carbides with carbon materials with special structures, composite materials with dual functions can be designed. Finally, the existing problems of non-platinum catalysts have been analyzed and several directions for future work have been proposed, which can provide reference for future research of non-platinum electrocatalysts. The development of non-platinum catalysts with high activity and stability will be the key research direction in the future.

Key words: fuel cells, catalyst, nanomaterials, oxygen reduction reaction, carbon materials

摘要：

商业铂碳催化剂价格高昂，开发非铂材料是推进燃料电池商业化的关键一步。本文首先介绍了燃料电池氧还原反应电催化剂的研究背景，接着分别介绍了非贵金属、非金属以及复合材料的催化剂，并对各类催化剂的活性位点和催化机理进行了简要的评述。其中，过渡金属的氮碳化物成本低廉，具有较高的催化活性以及优异的稳定性，是最有望替代贵金属Pt的一类催化剂。杂原子的掺杂能够改变碳材料的表面电荷分布，提升碳材料的催化活性。将过渡金属的氮碳化物和特殊结构的碳材料有效结合，可以设计出具有双功能的复合材料。最后，针对非铂催化剂存在的问题进行了分析并提出了今后工作的几个方向，为今后非铂电催化剂的研究提供参考。高活性高稳定性的非铂催化剂是未来该领域的重点研究方向。

关键词: 燃料电池, 催化剂, 纳米材料, 氧还氧反应, 碳材料