title: Metallocorroles as Nonprecious-Metal Catalysts for Oxygen Reduction.
abstract: The future of affordable fuel cells strongly relies on the design of earth-abundant (non-platinum) catalysts for the electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, the bottleneck in the overall process occurs therein. We have examined herein trivalent Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu complexes of β-pyrrole-brominated corrole as ORR catalysts. The adsorption of these complexes on a high-surface-area carbon powder (BP2000) created a unique composite material, used for electrochemical measurements in acidic aqueous solutions. These experiments disclosed a clear dependence of the catalytic activity on the metal center of the complexes, in the order of Co>Fe>Ni>Mn>Cu. The best catalytic performance was obtained for the Co(III) corrole, whose onset potential was as positive as 0.81 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). Insight into the properties of these systems was gained by spectroscopic and computational characterization of the reduced and oxidized forms of the metallocorroles.
authors.affiliation: Chemistry Department and the Lise Meitner-Minerva Center of Computational Quantum Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900 (Israel).
authors.forename: Naomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.affiliation: Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion-Israel Institute of Chemistry, Haifa 32000 (Israel).
authors.forename: Atif
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mahammed
authors.affiliation: Chemistry Department and the Lise Meitner-Minerva Center of Computational Quantum Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900 (Israel).
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kosa
authors.affiliation: Chemistry Department and the Lise Meitner-Minerva Center of Computational Quantum Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900 (Israel).
authors.forename: Dan T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Major
authors.affiliation: Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion-Israel Institute of Chemistry, Haifa 32000 (Israel). chr10zg@tx.technion.ac.il.
authors.forename: Zeev
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.affiliation: Chemistry Department and the Lise Meitner-Minerva Center of Computational Quantum Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900 (Israel). Lior.elbaz@biu.ac.il.
authors.forename: Lior
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Elbaz
keywords: cobalt; corroles; electrocatalysis; fuel cells; oxygen reduction reaction