Advanced Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalyst Based on Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Derived from Edible Sugar and Urea

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Abstract

Designing and fabricating advanced oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts is critical importance for the sake of promoting widespread application of fuel cells. In this work, we report that nitrogen-doped graphene (NG), synthesized via one-step pyrolysis of naturally available sugar in the presence of urea, can serve as metal-free ORR catalyst with excellent electrocatalytic activity, outstanding methanol crossover resistance as well as long-term operation stability in alkaline medium. The resultant NG1000 (annealed at 1000 °C) exhibits a high kinetic current density of 21.33 mA/cm(2) at -0.25 V (vs Ag/AgCl) in O2-saturated 0.1 M KOH electrolyte, compared with 16.01 mA/cm(2) at -0.25 V for commercial 20 wt % Pt/C catalyst. Notably, the NG1000 possesses comparable ORR half-wave potential to Pt/C. The effects of pyrolysis temperature on the physical prosperity and ORR performance of NG are also investigated. The obtained results demonstrate that high activation temperature (1000 °C) results in low nitrogen doping level, high graphitization degree, enhanced electrical conductivity, and high surface area and pore volume, which make a synergetic contribution to enhancing the ORR performance for NG.

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