Effect of the leaching of Ru-Se-Fe and Ru-Mo-Fe obtained by mechanical alloying on electrocatalytical behavior for the oxygen reduction reaction

In the present work, Ru-Se-Fe and Ru-Mo-Fe alloyed nanoparticles were synthesized from high purity powders (Ru, Se and Mo) by means of the high-energy mechanical alloying. Fe was integrated to the alloys because of the erosion of the mill balls. The ORR electrocatalytic performance of the alloys (lixiviated or not) was evaluated in a rotating disc electrode (RDE) at room temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used for the structure characterization of the materials. Small-particle clusters with granular morphology and nanometric sizes were obtained in all the cases. According to the Tafel parameters from the RDE results, a first order ORR is present in both electrocatalytic systems through a 4e^- global multielectron transference to form water: O₂ + 4H⁺ + e^- → H₂O. The electrocatalytic activity showed that the mechanical alloying enabled to obtain nanoparticle electrocatalysts with good ORR performance. Lixiviation of the mechanical alloying powders not improves the catalytical responses.