Date of Award

8-20-2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Chemistry

First Advisor

Ali Shaikh

Abstract

Modern fuel cells convert chemical energy to electrical energy due to the reaction between hydrogen and oxygen to produce water using a platinum electrocatalyst. The scarcity and high cost of platinum have led to the development of various less expensive and efficient electrocatalysts. Polypyrrole-cobalt (CoPPy) complex has been developed as a nonplatinum electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and potential application as a cathode in fuel cells. The complex was synthesized by refluxing pyrrole monomer and cobalt acetate tetrahydrate in dimethylformamide (DMF) for two hours followed by vacuum distillation to collect the solid electrocatalyst. Cyclic voltammetry, rotating disk electrode voltammetry and rotating ring disk electrode voltammetry for this complex deposited on a glassy carbon electrode, were studied in 1.0M perchloric acid using Ag/AgCl reference electrode and platinum wire as the counter electrode to evaluate its electrocatalytic properties. Results indicate that the CoPPy catalyst show excellent current density for the ORR process with significantly less overvoltage. Mixing the catalyst with carbon black, carbon nanotubes and graphene improves the catalyst performance. The efficiency of the PPy-Co complex is less than that of Pt, but it circumvents several drawbacks of Pt.

Download

Included in

Chemistry Commons

Share

COinS