Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon Material Derived from Biomass of Beancurd as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction and Zn-air Fuel Cell. Issue 8 (14th May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zheng, Hongying; Zhang, Yun; Long, Jilan; Li, Rong; Gou, Xinglong
• Is Part Of: Journal of the Electrochemical Society. Volume 167:Issue 8(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-05-14
• Subjects: Electrocatalysis -- oxygen reduction reactions -- metal-air battery -- biocarbon -- N-doping; Electrochemistry -- Periodicals; 541.3705
• DOI: 10.1149/1945-7111/ab907f
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-4651

Abstract

Abstract : Developing efficient and affordable electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is very important for next-generation energy conversion and storage devices. Herein, N-doped carbon materials with high N-doping level (5.02 at%) and hierarchically porous structure (H-NHPC) were fabricated by pyrolysis of inexpensive beancurd soaked with urea and NaCl, which was employed as an extra nitrogen resource and a green template to control the morphology and porosity, respectively. The as-prepared H-NHPC exhibited better ORR catalytic activity than the benchmark Pt/C electrocatalysts and most of other biomass-driven nitrogen-doped carbon materials in alkaline medium. The excellent catalytic activity of H-NHPC was attributed to its high content of catalytic active species such as pyridinic-N and graphitic-N, large surface area (988.2 m 2 g −1 ) and abundant porosity ranging from micro- to meso- and macro-scale for efficient mass transfer. Furthermore, the Zn-air battery (ZAB) assembled with H-NHPC as the air electrode displayed higher power-density, larger specific-capacity and better rate-capability than the Pt/C-based ZAB, showing great application perspective in metal-air batteries.