Researchers have discovered a route to increase the activity of perovskite oxide catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and/or the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in rechargeable metal-air batteries and fuel cells.The addition of polypyrrole improves perovskite catalyst performance in metal-air batteries and fuel cells. Source: UNIST

The improvement is realized by mixing perovksite with the conductive polymer polypyrrole. Combining perovskite and the polymer significantly reduced the overpotentials of ORR and OER on perovskite oxide catalysts without any strong interaction between the two components.

The catalytic performance of the oxide-polypyrrole complex was deemed comparable to that of pricier platinum.

Researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (South Korea), California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA), and Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), participated in this work.