A Study on Copper Oxide Catalyst for the Cathode of Zinc- Air Fuel Cell

• Main Authors: Kuei-Fu Liu, 劉奎府
• Other Authors: Pang Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/14969202459423122043

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 材料科學與工程系所 === 93 === Metal-air fuel cell has been used in low power consumed electric device, because of their simple structure, high power density, stable performance, high efficiency, low environmental influences and other advantages. Especially zinc-air fuel cell has been paid most attention because they have high specific energy. To make the zinc-air fuel cell reached high discharge current, it has boosted the reaction rate of oxygen reduction of the air electrode. This study is use CuO which has simple structure and easily synthesis as the catalyst. The different surface activity catalysts was prepared by using amorphous citrate precursor method and co-precipitation method, and further increase the degree of crystallization. Catalytic activity for catalyst uses the H2O2 decomposition reaction, and considers the influence of the surface area. Further figures out the catalytic activation per unit surface area. The results of the catalytic activity were found that CuO by using ACP method and co-precipitation method via CuCl2 has better activity. In this study we modify the procedure of air electrode, the battery test results higher discharging performance because of high dispersion of catalysts and PTFE in the supporter. The investigation is via the utilization of familiar electrochemical methods including the I-V discharging measurement, the cyclic voltammetry and the polarization curve analysis. The various catalysts for air cathode were carried out the electrochemical testing. In the I-V discharging measurement, the results show that the CuO by using ACP method and co-precipitation method via CuCl2 has best battery performance. By using cyclic voltammetry analysis, we observe the similar figure with MnO2. It is show that CuO has the ability to improve the oxygen reduction, but the mechanism is uncertain. The resulting polarization curves show that CuO has better oxygen reduction ability than MnO2. The conductivity of air electrode is not good enough leads the CuO air electrode have slightly better performance. The anodic polarization curves show that CuO has the ability to precede the oxygen evolution, and the reaction rate was higher than MnO2.