Chitosan/phytic acid hydrogel as a platform for facile synthesis of heteroatom-doped porous carbon frameworks for electrocatalytic oxygen reduction

Development of heteroatom-doped porous carbon frameworks derived from renewable biomaterials is highly desirable. Here we report phytic acid-chitosan (PA-CS) hydrogel as a platform for facile preparation of N, P dual-doped porous carbon networks via direct pyrolysis. The hydrogel system shows great versatility towards incorporating graphene oxide or metal ions, providing a way to introduce graphene sheets or metal nanoparticles into carbon matrix as needed. After the incorporation of graphene, the obtained N, P dual-doped carbon/graphene (NPC/G) sample shows a large specific surface area (1824m(2) g(-1)), with a mixed meso-and micro-pore volume of 1.04 cm(3) g(-1). Importantly, the NPC/G sample exhibits high activity towards electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction in both alkaline and acidic electrolyte, ensuring a high-performance air catalyst of primary zinc-air batteries. Hopefully, this work provides a new method for the preparation of porous carbon materials with desired properties for catalysis. (c) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.