Synthesis, Characterization and Electrochemical Testing of MnO2, Fe3O4 and Fe3O4- MnO2Hybrid Electrocatalysts in Alkaline water for fuel Cell applications

conversion, including fuel cells and batteries. The electro catalyst plays a pivotal role in facilitating the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR). Manganese dioxide (MnO2) and its composites with iron oxide (Fe3O4) have garnered attention as alternative electro catalysts due to their low cost, environmental friendlyness, and potential for high catalytic activity. This article explores the synthesis and characterization of MnO2, Fe3O4 and Fe3O4-MnO2 electro catalysts for fuel cell reactions. Up till now, the most commonly investigated ORR catalysts have been established on noble metals such as Pt which have shown better catalytic performance, but its high cost has severely limited their widespread applications. In this research work, we synthesized low-cost Fe3O4 and MnO2 nanotube structure hybrid cathode catalysts for efficient ORR using the co-precipitation method. Characterization of the prepared catalyst was made using SEM, XRD and FTIR techniques. Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), Square wave voltammetry (SWV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were used for electrochemical characterization in alkaline 0.1M KOH solution. The electrochemical characterization indicated that Fe3 O4-MnO2,hybrid catalyst is a more efficient cathode catalyst than the other two prepared catalysts. Hence, Fe3 O4-MnO2 composite can be considered a good alternative to the costly platinum catalyst, for alkaline fuel cell applications.