Nanostructured 3D metallic foams for H<inf>2</inf>O<inf>2</inf> electroreduction

Abstract

Direct borohydride fuel cells, which use sodium borohydride as the fuel, are recently focussing on the use of hydrogen peroxide as oxidant instead of the traditional oxygen gas. Herein we study the electrocatalytic activity of nanostructured 3D Cu-M (M = Fe, Co, Ni) and single metal Ni and Co foams for hydrogen peroxide reduction reaction (HPRR) in alkaline media. The electrode materials are prepared by galvanostatic electrodeposition and their morphology, composition and crystallographic structure are characterised by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis, respectively. The electrochemical characterisation is performed by voltammetry and chronoamperometry measurements, where it is concluded that Cu–Fe and Cu–Ni foams exhibit good catalytic activity for HPRR with a number of electrons transferred during the reaction close to 1.