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NaCl‐Promoted Hierarchically Porous Carbon Self‐Co‐Doped with Iron and Nitrogen for Efficient Oxygen Reduction
Author(s) -
Chen Guodong,
Wang Xilong,
Yang Chen,
Liang HanPu,
Wang Zonghua
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
chemistryselect
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 34
ISSN - 2365-6549
DOI - 10.1002/slct.202001219
Subject(s) - electrocatalyst , limiting current , carbon fibers , catalysis , pyrolysis , methanol , materials science , chemical engineering , electrochemistry , nitrogen , oxygen reduction , oxygen , porosity , nanotechnology , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , electrode , composite number , composite material , organic chemistry , engineering
Exploring low‐cost, highly effective and durable nonprecious electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is the key issue for large‐scale applications of fuel cell technology. However, preparation of Fe−N−C ORR catalysts using biomass without any external sources containing nitrogen and iron elements has rarely been reported. In this paper, hierarchically porous carbon self‐co‐doped with Fe and N promoted by NaCl has been successfully synthesized through a facile one‐step pyrolysis method using pig blood curds (PBCs) without any external Fe and N. Besides, Fe and N are uniformly dispersed within the as‐synthesized electrocatalysts. Electrochemical tests showed that the best performing Fe−N−C electrocatalyst exhibited superior ORR catalytic activity with a positive half‐wave potential of 0.834 V vs. RHE and a high limiting current density of 5.6 mA cm −2 . Furthermore, the as‐synthesized electrocatalyst also showed remarkable long‐term stability as well as superior methanol tolerance, outperforming commercial Pt/C. The facile synthesis of high‐performance Fe−N−C electrocatalysts derived from PBCs using NaCl as the pore former provides fundamental insight and offers important guidelines for the future design of biomass‐derived carbons in specific energy applications.