Affiliation:
1. Key laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Ministry of Education) Hubei Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry and Service Failure School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Huazhong University of Science and Technology 430074 Wuhan P. R. China
2. Shenzhen Huazhong University of Science and Technology Research Institute 518000 Shenzhen P. R. China
Abstract
AbstractBiomass‐derived carbon materials have received extensive attention for use in high‐performance electrocatalysts. In this study, a highly efficient electrocatalyst is developed with Co nanoparticles anchored on N‐doped porous carbon material (CoNC) by using yeast as a biomass precursor through a facial activation and pyrolysis process. CoNC exhibits comparable catalytic activity with commercial 20 % Pt/C for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) with a half‐wave potential of 0.854 V. A home‐made primary Zn–air battery exhibited an open circuit potential of 1.45 V and a peak power density of 188 mW cm−2. Moreover, the discharge voltage of the primary battery maintained at a stable value up to 9 days. The enhanced performance of CoNC was probably ascribed to its high content of pyridinic‐N and graphitic‐N species, extra Co loading and porous structure, which provided sufficient active sites and channels to promote mass/electron transfer for ORR. This work provides a promising strategy to develop an efficient non‐noble metal carbon‐based electrocatalyst for fuel cells and metal–air batteries.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province
Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province
Subject
General Energy,General Materials Science,General Chemical Engineering,Environmental Chemistry