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Facile synthesis of N-doped carbon nanosheet-encased cobalt nanoparticles as efficient oxygen reduction catalysts in alkaline and acidic media

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Abstract

In this work, a low-cost, high-performance, and environmentally friendly non-precious-metal catalyst was fabricated via a simple pyrolysis of the corn starch, dicyandiamide, and cobalt acetate for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images show that the catalyst has porous and graphene-like carbon nanosheet-encased metal nanoparticles structure. Electrochemical measurements show that, compared to the commercial Pt/C catalysts, the catalyst has a low overpotential, larger current density, and better methanol tolerance ability for ORR in both alkaline and acidic media, which may be attributed to the incorporation of Co–Nx moieties and Co nanoparticles. The transferred number of electrons during the ORR with the catalyst was calculated to be ∼3.9 in alkaline media (∼3.7 in acidic media), indicating that the product would be a promising non-noble cathode catalyst in alkaline and acidic fuel cells or Li/Zn air batteries.

Proposed synthetic protocol for N-doped carbon nanosheet-encased cobalt nanoparticles, and it act as efficient oxygen reduction catalysts in alkaline and acidic media

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to The University Scientific Research Project of Gansu Province Foundation (Grant No. 2014A-034), Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (no. 2015M581966), for financially supporting this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Processing and Recycling of Nonferrous Metals, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730050, China

    Qiuping Zhao

  2. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730050, China

    Qiuping Zhao & Qin Ma

  3. College of Petrochemical Technology, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730050, China

    Qiuping Zhao & Junhong Guo

  4. State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730050, China

    Fuping Pan & Junyan Zhang

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  1. Qiuping Zhao
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  2. Qin Ma
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Correspondence to Junyan Zhang.

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Zhao, Q., Ma, Q., Pan, F. et al. Facile synthesis of N-doped carbon nanosheet-encased cobalt nanoparticles as efficient oxygen reduction catalysts in alkaline and acidic media. Ionics 22, 2203–2212 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-016-1748-4

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