Journal
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY A
Volume 5, Issue 36, Pages 19343-19350Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c7ta05522f
Keywords
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [51678162]
- Guangzhou City Science-Technology Project [201707010250, 2014Y2-00194]
- Guangdong Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholar [2014A030306033]
- Natural Science Fund of Guangdong province [2016A030310351]
- Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province [2014A020216042]
- Guangdong Special Fund for Public Welfare Research and Capacity Building [2015A030302075]
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Heteroatom-doped hollow carbon nanospheres (HCNs) have drawn significant attention as alternative catalysts towards the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, the simple and environmentally friendly synthesis of heteroatom-doped HCNs is a great challenge. Herein, an Fe/N-doped porous HCN (Fe/N-HCN) has been fabricated via a simple pyrolysis method using one-step synthesized poly(aniline-co-pyrrole) copolymer hollow nanospheres as precursors. The prepared Fe/N-HCN exhibited excellent ORR activity (onset potential of 0.02 V and half-wave potential of -0.12 V vs. Ag/AgCl), comparable to that of the Pt/C catalyst (onset potential of 0.01 V and half-wave potential of -0.14 V vs. Ag/AgCl) and superior to those of most of the reported noble metal-free carbon catalysts with hollow structures. The catalytic proficiency of the as-prepared catalyst was attributed to the abundant N and Fe atoms within the carbon lattice and a high surface area due to its hollow morphology. The as-prepared Fe/N-HCN also exhibited remarkable ORR activity in neutral solution, displaying potential application as a cathode catalyst in a microbial fuel cell (MFC). A maximum power density of 1300 +/- 64 mW m(-2) was achieved from an MFC equipped with the resultant Fe/N-HCN cathode, which outperformed that of the MFC with a Pt/C cathode. In this study, we reported a new approach for the production of Fe/N-doped carbon materials with a hollow morphology that exhibited high performance towards ORR.
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