Carbon-vanadium composites as non-precious catalysts for electro-reduction of oxygen

Abstract A sol-gel synthesis method followed by carbonization is reported to obtain vanadium carbon composites. Samples are exhaustively characterized to correlate their chemical, textural and electrochemical properties with their behaviour as electro-catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction in a three-electrode electrochemical set-up in alkaline medium. The results show a very good electro-catalytic behaviour with large kinetic current densities (>20 mA/cm 2 ) and low activation potentials (E onset  = −0.18 V and E 1/2  = −0.24 V). The oxygen reduction reaction study of the catalysts shows that vanadium carbon composites possess a comparable catalytic performance to commercial Pt/C catalyst and that these composites offer a promising route for the activity enhancement of the non-precious metal catalysts.