TY - GEN A1 - Kramm, Ulrike Ingrid A1 - Herrmann-Geppert, Iris A1 - Fiechter, Sebastian A1 - Zehl, Gerald A1 - Zizak, Ivo A1 - Dorbandt, Iris A1 - Schmeißer, Dieter A1 - Bogdanoff, Peter T1 - Effect of iron carbide formation on the number of active sites in Fe-N-C catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction in acidic media T2 - Journals of materials chemistry A KW - Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) KW - Fe-N-C catalyst KW - acidic media KW - high-temperature X-ray diffraction (HT-XRD) KW - thermogravimetry coupled with mass-spectroscopy (TG-MS) Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ta13821f SN - 2050-7488 SN - 2050-7496 IS - 8 SP - 2663 EP - 2670 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Kramm, Ulrike Ingrid A1 - Lefèvre, Michel A1 - Bogdanoff, Peter A1 - Schmeißer, Dieter A1 - Dodelet, Jean-Pol T1 - Analyzing Structural Changes of Fe-N-C Cathode Catalysts in PEM Fuel Cell by Mößbauer Spectroscopy of Complete Membrane-Electrode-Assemblies T2 - The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters N2 - The applicability of analyzing by Mößbauer spectroscopy the structural changes of Fe–N–C catalysts that have been tested at the cathode of membrane electrode assemblies in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells is demonstrated. The Mößbauer characterization of powders of the same catalysts was recently described in our previous publication. A possible change of the iron species upon testing in fuel cell was investigated here by Mößbauer spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray cross-sectional imaging, and neutron activation analysis. Our results show that the absorption probability of γ rays by the iron nuclei in Fe–N–C is strongly affected by the presence of Nafion and water content. A detailed investigation of the effect of an oxidizing treatment (1.2 V) of the non-noble cathode in PEM fuel cell indicates that the observed activity decay is mainly attributable to carbon oxidation causing a leaching of active iron sites hosted in the carbon matrix. KW - iron-based catalyst KW - iron−nitrogen−carbon catalyst KW - non-noble metal catalyst KW - nonprecious metal catalyst KW - oxygen reduction reaction KW - ORR KW - polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell KW - PEM-FC KW - degradation Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/jz501955g SN - 1948-7185 VL - 2014 IS - 5 SP - 3750 EP - 3756 ER -