Preparation and Characterization of Nitrogen-Riched Polymer Based Materials and the Role of Cu–N Active Site in Promoting the ORR Activity of the Catalyst

A novel nitrogen-riched composite (PPYTZ/C) was firstly prepared by chemical polymerization, and then the Cu-PPYTZ/C complex was obtained by immersing the PPYTZ/C modified electrode in copper sulphate solution. For comparing the performance of the two catalysts, physical and electrochemical measurements were adopted. Wherein, physical measurements include scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). And, the electrochemical measurements include cyclic voltammetry (CV), rotating disk electrode (RDE) and rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE), and then the above measurement results were compared with commercial Pt/C. The CV and RDE results proved that Cu-PPYTZ/C catalyst exhibits excellent performance than that of PPYTZ/C in term of ORR activities and stability. In addition, the RRDE results also indicated that Cu-PPYTZ/C is comparable to the commercialization Pt/C in term of electron transfer numbers. In conclusion, Cu-PPYTZ/C is the potential candidate for oxygen reduction reaction catalysts, which is attribute to the role of CNx-M in Cu-PPYTZ/C catalyst as the catalytic group.