Effect of solvent on Se-modified ruthenium/carbon catalyst for oxygen reduction

Se-modified ruthenium supporting on carbon (Sex–Ru/C) electrocatalyst was prepared by solvothermal one-step synthesis method. The reaction mechanism was revealed after discussing impact of different solvents (i-propanol and EG) in solvotermal reaction. The result showed that the grain size of Se-modified ruthenium electrocatalyst was as small as 1 to 3 nm and highly dispersed on carbon surface. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) presented that selenium mainly existed in the catalyst in the form of elemental selenium and selenium oxides when the solvent was EG and i-propanol, respectively. The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance was improved by appearance of selenium oxides.