Recently, Prof. Liu Jingang Group achieved remarkable advance in Biomimetic catalyst of ORR. This research work entitled “Covalent Grafting of Carbon Nanotubes with a Biomimetic Heme Model Compound To Enhance Oxygen Reduction Reactions” was published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.(http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201403133/pdf）

    The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is one of the most important reactions in both life rocesses and energy conversion systems. Inspired by the mechanisms of dioxygen activation by metalloenzymes, herein, we report a structurally well-defined, bio-inspired ORR catalyst consisting of a biomimetic model compound, an axial imidazolecoordinated porphyrin, covalently attached to multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Without pyrolysis, thisbio-inspired electrocatalyst demonstrates ORR activity and stability superior to those of the state-of-the-art Pt/C catalyst in either acidic or alkaline solutions, making it a promising alternative as an ORR electrocatalyst for application in fuel cell technology. The reviewers of this research paper recommended it’s “remarkable advance”.

    Currently, the noble metal platinum (Pt) is predominantly used as the ORR catalyst in fuel cells. The replacement of the scarce and costly Pt by non-precious-metal catalysts (NPMCs) is crucial for the large-scale commercialization of automotive fuel cells. Thus, this result has a very broad application prospects in the field of fuel cell and have been applied with China patent.

    This work was realized by Dr. Pingjie Wei and Dr. Guoqiang Yu, with financially supported by NSF of China (#21271072), the Program for professor of special appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai institutions of Higher Learning, and sponsored by Shanghai Pujiang Program (# 13PJ1401900).