Nanoparticulate Mn0.3Ce0.7O2: a novel electrocatalyst with improved power performance for metal/air batteries

In this work, a novel electrocatalyst, Mn0.3Ce0.7O2, with relatively high power performance has been, for the first time, proposed for metal/air batteries. The as-prepared samples are well characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and nitrogen sorption experiments. Meanwhile, electrocatalytic activity towards the reduction of oxygen of Mn0.3Ce0.7O2 is compared with those of the pure MnO2 and CeO2. It is observed that the Mn0.3Ce0.7O2 solid solution is well formed after the calcination. Electrochemical results show that Mn0.3Ce0.7O2 exhibits much higher electrocatalytic activity in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) than pure MnO2 under high discharge current density, which is probably attributed to the effective activation of molecular oxygen over the Mn0.3Ce0.7O2 solid solution and higher surface area.