A synthesis method has been developed to turn peat, cheap biomass into hard carbons that demonstrate high capacity and excellent sodium storage capability as anode material in sodium-ion batteries.

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In this study, several peat-derived carbons (PDC) were synthesized using various carbonization protocols. It was found that depending on the carbonization method, carbons with very different surface morphologies, elemental compositions, porosities, and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activities were obtained. Five carbons were used as carbon supports to synthesize Co-N/PDC catalysts, and five different ORR catalysts were acquired. The surface analysis revealed that a higher nitrogen content, number of surface oxide defects, and higher specific surface area lead to higher ORR activity of the Co-N/PDC catalysts in acidic solution. The catalyst Co-N/C-2(ZnCl2), which was synthesized from ZnCl2-activated and pyrolyzed peat, showed the highest ORR activity in both rotating disk electrode and polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell tests. A maximum power density value of 210 mW cm−2 has been obtained. The results of this study indicate that PDCs are promising candidates for the synthesis of active non-platinum group metal type catalysts.

Using different carbonization protocols, five peat derived carbon materials were synthesized. These carbons have very different surface morphology confirmed by HR-SEM and different porosities and pore size distributions obtained by N2 sorption method. The ORR activity of the peat derived carbons also differs significantly in 0.1 M HClO4 solution. Additionally, co-doping the peat derived carbons with cobalt and nitrogen enhanced their catalytic activity considerably. The most active ORR catalyst was achieved using the carbon support where the dry milled peat was mixed with ZnCl2 and pyrolyzed in Ar for 2 h at 700 °C. Interestingly, the activity of the initial carbon powder does not seem to be a clear indicator of the final activity of the M-N/C catalysts synthesized from it.

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