title: Novel VN/C nanocomposites as methanol-tolerant oxygen reduction electrocatalyst in alkaline electrolyte.
abstract: A novel VN/C nanostructure consisting of VN nanoparticles and graphite-dominant carbon layers is synthesized by nitridation of V2O5 using melamine as reductant under inert atmosphere. High crystalline VN nanoparticles are observed to be uniformly distributed in carbon layers with an average size of ca13.45 nm. Moreover, the electrocatalytic performance of VN/C towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline electrolyte is fascinating. The results show that VN/C has a considerable ORR activity, including a 75 percent value of the diffusion-limited current density and a 0.11 V smaller value about the onset potential with respect to Pt/C catalyst. Moreover, the excellent methanol-tolerance performance of VN/C has also been verified with 3 M methanol. Combined with the competitive prices, this VN/C nanocomposite can serve as an appropriate non-precious methanol-tolerant ORR catalyst for alkaline fuel cells.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications &School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications &School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bi
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications &School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications &School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications &School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, PR China.
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications &School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lei