Transforming chitosan into N-doped graphitic carbon electrocatalysts

Abstract

Chitosan, the only alkaline polysaccharide in nature with rich nitrogen content, is used as the sole precursor to obtain N-doped graphitic carbon-based ORR electrocatalysts. The findings of this work demonstrate that cheap, plentiful and renewable biomasses can be transformed into high value functional carbon materials.

Intumescent flame retardant-derived P,N co-doped porous carbon as an efficient electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction

“…The peaks appearing at 25° and 44° correspond to (002) and (100) reflections of graphitic carbon, respectively. 6 It has been reported that the degradation of APP at above 200 ˚C results in a highly condensed polyphosphoric acid and the azeotropic P 4 O 10 -H 2 O mixture boils above 600 ˚C. 14 Therefore, we infer that the interface between the liquid of P 4 O 10 -H 2 O and the melt PDA lead to the graphene-like sheets.…”

“…4 The adsorbed O 2 molecules have weaker bond energy, which is beneficial to reduce the activation energy of the ORR. 5 Moreover, some studies reveal that the ORR catalytic activity can be further enhanced by co-doping carbon with S-N, 6 B-N, 7 and P-N 8 etc.…”

Soy protein directed hydrothermal synthesis of porous carbon aerogels for electrocatalytic oxygen reduction

“…Platinum based materials are efficient ORR catalysts but the large-scale commercial use is limited mainly due to its prohibitive cost and scarcity as well as the sensitivity to time dependent drift and CO deactivation [12][13][14]. Therefore increasing amount of efforts have been directed to develop cost-effective alternatives such as metal-free or non-precious metal based counterparts to replace commercial platinum catalysts.…”

Facile preparation of N-doped mesocellular graphene foam from sludge flocs for highly efficient oxygen reduction reaction

“…However, nitrogen-doped carbon electrocatalysts are usually fabricated using expensive carbon sources and labor-intensive post-doping 17,18 , which consequently increase the cost and unavoidably cause ununiformed doping or damage to the synthesized carbon structures 19 . What's worse, the pyrolysis of common carbon sources usually result in non-porous and low graphitized materials (low surface area/pore volume and low conductivity) due to the absence of template effect and metal catalysis, respectively 20,21 .…”