Effect of rf-Plasma Treatment on the Activity and Selectivity of Me-N-C Electrocatalysts for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Plasma treatments are well-known to enable a tuning of surface functionalities for carbon-based materials. In this work, CO2 and O-2 plasma treatments were used to investigate the effect on structural composition and electrocatalytic activity and selectivity for the electroreduction of oxygen. The catalysts are characterized by X-ray induced photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy as well as N-2 sorption. Activity and selectivity measurements are made with a rotating rind disk electrode (RRDE) setup in 0.1 M H2SO4.