Porous Nitrogen-Doped Carbons as Effective Catalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction Synthesized from Cellulose and Polyamide

The development of catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction with excellent performance, low cost, and long-time stability is significant for energy conversion devices like fuel cells. Herein, micro/mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon has been successfully fabricated through one-step pyrolysis and activation by using cellulose and polyamide as precursors and ZnCl2 as activator. The sample displayed the comparable ORR catalytic activity (onset potential, 0.986 V vs. RHE) with commercial platinum-based catalysts as well as excellent durability to methanol crossover effect. Furthermore, the correlations between ORR performance and chemical and structural properties (i. e. graphitic N and pyridinic N content, I-D/I-G, BET specific surface area and micropore volume) have been investigated. This report provided a facile and cost-effective method of transforming nylon waste and biomass-derived resource into nitrogen-doped carbon.