Preparation and Performance of a Non-Precious Metal Catalyst CoMe/C for Oxygen Reduction Reaction from Modified Carbon Black Using Melamine as Nitrogen Source

A non-precious metal catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction is prepared by heat-treating a precursor containing acetylene black, melamine and cobalt chloride. The result shows that the method is effective, and a best catalyst can be obtained by heat-treating the precursor at 600 ℃ for 2 hours. In heat-treating, the cobalt ion is reduced to metallic β-cobalt and the metallic cobalt simultaneously facilitates the nitrogen source reacting with acetylene black to form the active sites to oxygen reduction reaction. The nitrogen source can also react with acetylene black to prepare a metal-free catalyst without the existence of cobalt at a higher temperature, but the activity of resulted catalyst is worse