Transforming waste biomass with an intrinsically porous network structure into porous nitrogen-doped graphene for highly efficient oxygen reduction

• Published in: Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP Vol. 18; no. 15; p. 10392
• Main Authors: Zhou, Huang, Zhang, Jian, Amiinu, Ibrahim Saana, Zhang, Chenyu, Liu, Xiaobo, Tu, Wenmao, Pan, Mu, Mu, Shichun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 21-04-2016
• Subjects: Biomass; Graphite - chemistry; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; Nitrogen - chemistry; Oxidation-Reduction; Oxygen - chemistry; Porosity
• ISSN: 1463-9084
• DOI: 10.1039/c6cp00174b

Porous nitrogen-doped graphene with a very high surface area (1152 m(2) g(-1)) is synthesized by a novel strategy using intrinsically porous biomass (soybean shells) as a carbon and nitrogen source via calcination and KOH activation. To redouble the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity by tuning the doped-nitrogen content and type, ammonia (NH3) is injected during thermal treatment. Interestingly, this biomass-derived graphene catalyst exhibits the unique properties of mesoporosity and high pyridine-nitrogen content, which contribute to the excellent oxygen reduction performance. As a result, the onset and half-wave potentials of the new metal-free non-platinum catalyst reach -0.009 V and -0.202 V (vs. SCE), respectively, which is very close to the catalytic activity of the commercial Pt/C catalyst in alkaline media. Moreover, our catalyst has a higher ORR stability and stronger CO and CH3OH tolerance than Pt/C in alkaline media. Importantly, in acidic media, the catalyst also exhibits good ORR performance and higher ORR stability compared to Pt/C.