Novel method to produce cobalt-polypyrrole catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction by dual plasma process

Platinum-free electrocatalysts based on cobalt and polypyrrole were successfully produced with a dual plasma process and characterised for the oxygen reduction reaction by cyclic voltammetry (CV). The results show that composites with catalytic activity were obtained. Furthermore, by varying the plasma process parameters, the activity of the samples was changed. Structural properties were also investigated by means of energy dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy (EDX), to obtain the elemental contents, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) to identify the chemical structure of the films. The results indicate that, with increasing magnetron power, more and more cobalt nitrogen bonds are formed. The formation of these complexes correlates with the increase in catalytic activity. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.