Fabricating 3D ultra-thin N-doped porous graphene-like catalysts based on polymerized amino acid metal chelates as an efficient oxygen electrocatalyst for Zn-air batteries. (24th August 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Yunxiao; Xiao, Wenhua; Yin, Yuan; Peng, De Zheng; Wang, Hongqiang; Zhou, Minjie; Hou, Zhaohui; Liu, Yu; He, Binhong
• Is Part Of: New journal of chemistry. Volume 46:Number 35(2022)
• Page Start: 17032
• Page End: 17039
• Publication Date: 2022-08-24
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; Chimie -- Périodiques; 540
• DOI: 10.1039/d2nj02623f
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1144-0546

Abstract

Abstract : NPC-1050 has a unique hierarchical porous morphology, and optimized structure and composition, thus leading to a much improved ORR performance. Abstract : Using metal-free heteroatom-doped carbon material electrocatalysts with high efficiency and low cost for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) to replace Pt or its alloys is a major task for promoting the reaction efficiency of fuel cells. Here, we report the rational design of three-dimensional (3D) ultra-thin N-doped porous graphene-like carbon (NPC) catalyst based on amino acid zinc chelates containing ligand bonds as both templates and nitrogen sources. During high-temperature annealing treatment, the evaporation of Zn is beneficial to produce a hierarchical porous structure, higher specific surface area and more defect sites. A 3D ultra-thin graphene-like covalently crosslinked polymer with a multilayer network structure was formed by a condensation reaction of amino acid Zn complexes. Under the optimized pyrolysis temperature, the as-obtained NPC-1050 catalyst has a higher defect density and graphitic-N/pyridinic-N ratio, and exhibits an excellent ORR catalytic performance. The half-wave potential, onset potential and limiting current density are 0.878 mV, 0.970 mV and 5.64 mA cm −2, respectively. In addition, it also showed a competitive performance when compared to commercial Pt/C catalysts in Zn-air batteries. The present route may provide new insights into the synthesis of polypeptide or protein metal complexes, and their application in energy fields.