Issue 35, 2017

Dual active nitrogen doped hierarchical porous hollow carbon nanospheres as an oxygen reduction electrocatalyst for zinc–air batteries

Abstract

Developing non-platinum catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has become urgent for electrochemical energy devices. Herein, we synthesize N-doped hollow carbon nanospheres (N-HCNs) which only contain active pyridinic-N and graphitic-N by using polystyrene spheres and aniline as the corresponding template and precursor. The electrochemical measurements show that N-HCNs possess superior ORR electrocatalytic activity (half-wave potential is 15 mV higher than that of the precious Pt/C electrocatalyst), durability and anti-toxicity to Pt/C in alkaline media. Simultaneously, N-HCNs also reveal comparable ORR activity and superior stability to Pt/C in acidic media. Such high ORR performance can be ascribed to their hierarchical porous structure, ultra-high specific surface area, plenty of edge defects and high contents of active N atoms. It is noteworthy that when used as the catalyst for the air electrode of zinc–air batteries, N-HCNs present a higher power density and a larger operating voltage than Pt/C at the same discharge current density.

Graphical abstract: Dual active nitrogen doped hierarchical porous hollow carbon nanospheres as an oxygen reduction electrocatalyst for zinc–air batteries

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 Jun 2017
Accepted
11 Aug 2017
First published
11 Aug 2017

Nanoscale, 2017,9, 13257-13263

Dual active nitrogen doped hierarchical porous hollow carbon nanospheres as an oxygen reduction electrocatalyst for zinc–air batteries

J. Zhu, H. Zhou, C. Zhang, J. Zhang and S. Mu, Nanoscale, 2017, 9, 13257 DOI: 10.1039/C7NR04349J

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