Space-confinement-induced synthesis of hierarchically nanoporous carbon nanowires for the enhanced electrochemical reduction of oxygen. Issue 13 (3rd March 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Xu, Jiaoxing; Yu, Qiangmin; Guan, Lunhui
• Is Part Of: Journal of materials chemistry. Volume 3:Issue 13(2015)
• Page Start: 7093
• Page End: 7099
• Publication Date: 2015-03-03
• Subjects: Materials -- Research -- Periodicals; Chemistry, Analytic -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; 543.0284
• DOI: 10.1039/c4ta07106a
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2050-7488

Abstract

Abstract : N-doped hierarchically nanoporous carbon nanowires prepared through an Fe/Co metal-assisted pyrimidine carbonization in an anodic alumina oxide (AAO) confined nanospace demonstrate excellent ORR performances comparable to a commercial Pt/C catalyst. Abstract : Hierarchically nanoporous N-doped carbon nanowires (N-CWs) were prepared by a novel space-confinement-induced assembly strategy, for which nitrogen-enriched pyrimidine and anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) template bearing metal oxides are employed as precursor and nanoscale channels, respectively, and the Fe/Co metal oxide not only blocks the AAO surface from the original surface-templating carbonization, but also introduces nanoporosity with acid etching. Thus-obtained carbon nanowires composed of N-doped graphene-like carbon nanosheets not only contain a high N content (up to ∼12%), but also possess a hierarchically meso/microporous structure (∼1.3 cm 3 g −1 ) with high specific surface area (∼455 m 2 g −1 ). This protocol allows for the simultaneous optimization of graphitization, porous structure and surface functionalization. As a result, the prepared N-CWs demonstrate an attractive electrocatalytic capability towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Specifically, in addition to the improved kinetic current density and overpotential, the N-CWs prepared at 700 °C show the optimized ORR performance with an electron-transfer number of ∼4.0, which very close to that of a commercial Pt/C catalyst.