Premium
The Influence of Heteroatom Dopants Nitrogen, Boron, Sulfur, and Phosphorus on Carbon Electrocatalysts for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction
Author(s) -
Preuss Kathrin,
Siwoniku Adaeze M.,
Bucur Cristina I.,
Titirici MariaMagdalena
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chempluschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.801
H-Index - 61
ISSN - 2192-6506
DOI - 10.1002/cplu.201900083
Subject(s) - heteroatom , dopant , sulfur , boron , inorganic chemistry , carbon fibers , catalysis , nitrogen , phosphorus , chemistry , materials science , doping , organic chemistry , ring (chemistry) , optoelectronics , composite number , composite material
A hard templating method, using SBA‐15 in combination with glucose solution and different heteroatom precursors, has been employed to investigate the influence of the different heteroatom dopants nitrogen, boron, sulfur, and phosphorus on carbon electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction. Samples were synthesized under the same conditions and resulted in a similar morphology and surface areas around 1000 m 2 /g. Incorporating nitrogen into the carbon matrix was found to be easier than for boron or phosphorus, while sulfur doping proved problematic and only yielded 2 at% of sulfur or less. Different dopant concentrations as well as a combination of dopants suggested that nitrogen was the only heteroatom exerting an actual influence on the catalytic activity, resulting in higher electron transfer numbers. The other dopants exhibited a similar performance regardless of the dopant content, though slightly improved when compared to an undoped control sample. These findings indicate that incorporated nitrogen can act as catalytic sites, while boron, sulfur and phosphorus can enhance the catalytic activity by possibly creating defects in the carbon matrix.