Nitrogen- and sulfur-doped carbon nanoplatelets via thermal annealing of alkaline lignin with urea as efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction

作者：Zhang, Xianlei; Yu, Dingling; Zhang, Yaqing; Guo, Wenhui; Ma, Xiuxiu; He, Xingquan^*

来源：RSC Advances, 2016, 6(106): 104183-104192.

DOI：10.1039/c6ra21958f

• METAL-FREE CATALYST
• ION BATTERIES
• GRAPHENE
• PERFORMANCE
• AEROGEL

Nowadays, the development of metal-free oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts based on heteroatom-doped carbon materials has become one of the most attractive topics in fuel cells. Here, we describe a green one-step pyrolysis method for the synthesis of N and S dual-doped carbon nanoplatelets by using alkaline lignin (AL) as the C and S sources combining with urea as a nitrogen dopant. After carbonization at 900 degrees C, such a hybrid material (N-S-C 900) possesses an excellent electrocatalytic activity towards ORR in both alkaline and acidic media, which is superior to the benchmark Pt/C catalyst in terms of the half-wave potential and diffusion-limiting current density in an alkaline medium. Meanwhile, the obtained hybrid also shows better stability and excellent methanol tolerance than the commercial Pt/C catalyst for ORR in both alkaline and acidic media. In particular, the N-S-C 900 has prominent operational stability in alkaline media, retaining 93.1% of the initial current density after 10 000 s. In this way, using natural biological resources provides a promising alternative to noble-metal catalysts.

• 出版日期2016
• 单位长春理工大学