Issue 20, 2014 - Research on oxygen reduction biomimetic catalysts has progressed

Research on oxygen reduction biomimetic catalysts has been progressed

Recently, Professor Liu Jingang's research group at the School of Chemistry of East China University of Science and Technology has made important progress in the research of oxygen molecule reduction biomimetic catalysts, and published a research paper
entitled "Covalently grafted biomimetic heme model compounds on carbon nanotubes to enhance oxygen molecule reduction reaction" online in the German Journal of Applied Chemistry.

The activation and reduction of oxygen molecules is a very important chemical reaction process in both life processes and energy conversion systems (such as fuel cells), and it is also a hot topic
widely studied.
Based on the highly selective four-electron reduction process of metal proteases for oxygen molecules and high energy conversion efficiency in biological systems, the biomimetic oxygen molecule reduction catalyst was covalently crosslinked to the carbon nanotubes of the catalyst support, and an efficient and stable oxygen molecule reduction catalyst
was prepared in a structure-performance controllable manner.

The catalytic activity and stability of the prepared biomimetic catalysts are much better than those of existing commercial precious metal platinum-carbon (Pt/C) catalysts
in both acid and alkaline environments.
The biomimetic catalyst is currently the catalyst with the best catalytic performance among oxygen reduction base metal catalysts
.
(Li Meng)