Nano conductive ceramic wedged graphene composites as highly efficient metal supports for oxygen reduction

Abstract

A novel conductive ceramic/graphene nanocomposite is prepared to prohibit the re-stacking of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) by wedging zirconium diboride (ZrB 2) nanoparticles (NPs) into multiple layer nanosheets using a simple solvothermal method. Surprisingly, the RGO/ZrB 2 nanocomposite supported Pt NPs shows very excellent catalytic activity. Its electrochemical surface area (ECSA) is up to 148†m 2 g -1 (very approaches the geometry surface area of 155†m 2 g -1), much greater than that of the previous report (usually less than 100†m 2 g -1). The mass activity is as high as 16.8†A/g -1, which is almost 2 times and 5 times that of Pt/RGO (8.6†A/g -1) and Pt/C (3.2†A/g -1), respectively, as benchmarks. Moreover, after 4000 cycles the catalyst shows only 61% of ECSA loss, meaning a predominantly electrochemical stability. The remarkably improved electrochemical properties with much high Pt utilization of the new catalyst show a promising application in low temperature fuel cells and broader fields.