High-Level Oxygen Reduction Catalysts Derived from the Compounds of High-Specific-Surface-Area Pine Peel Activated Carbon and Phthalocyanine Cobalt

Abstract

Non-platinum carbon-based catalysts have attracted much more attention in recent years because of their low cost and outstanding performance, and are regarded as one of the most promising alternatives to precious metal catalysts. Activated carbon (AC), which has a large specific surface area (SSA), can be used as a carrier or carbon source at the same time. In this work, stable pine peel bio-based materials were used to prepare large-surface-area activated carbon and then compound with cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) to obtain a high-performance cobalt/nitrogen/carbon (Co-N-C) catalyst. High catalytic activity is related to increasing the number of Co particles on the large-specific-area activated carbon, which are related with the immersing effect of CoPc into the AC and the rational decomposed temperature of the CoPc ring. The synergy with N promoting the exposure of CoNx active sites is also important. The Eonset of the catalyst treated with a composite proportion of AC and CoPc of 1 to 2 at 800 °C (AC@CoPc-800-1-2) is 1.006 V, higher than the Pt/C (20 wt%) catalyst. Apart from this, compared with other AC/CoPc series catalysts and Pt/C (20 wt%) catalyst, the stability of AC/CoPc-800-1-2 is 87.8% in 0.1 M KOH after 20,000 s testing. Considering the performance and price of the catalyst in a practical application, these composite catalysts combining biomass carbon materials with phthalocyanine series could be widely used in the area of catalysts and energy storage.

M−N−C Materials for Electrochemical Reduction Reactions: Recent Strategies for Improving Electrocatalytic Activity and Stability

“…Several hypotheses have been proposed and one of the possible degradation pathways is the dissolution of Co ions from the Co−N x active sites during the ORR in acidic media [73] . Recent studies employing hierarchical porous structures for providing high‐specific‐surface‐area have demonstrated to improve the performance and stability of Co−N−C, either in acidic or alkaline electrolytes [75,76] . Another approach to improve electrocatalytic activity and stability is via immobilisation of Co−N 4 moieties in ZIF‐8 micropores, which consists of doping ZIF‐8 with Co using Co−Zn ion exchange followed by pyrolysis.…”

“…[73] Recent studies employing hierarchical porous structures for providing high-specific-surface-area have demonstrated to improve the performance and stability of CoÀ NÀ C, either in acidic or alkaline electrolytes. [75,76] Another approach to improve electrocatalytic activity and stability is via immobilisation of CoÀ N 4 moieties in ZIF-8 micropores, which consists of doping ZIF-8 with Co using CoÀ Zn ion exchange followed by pyrolysis. Such an approach enabled a significant increase in the density of CoÀ N x active sites in the SAC-based CoÀ NÀ C structure.…”

Biomass‐Derived Electrocatalysts: Low‐Cost, Robust Materials for Sustainable Electrochemical Energy Conversion

“…Co-Pcs. [126] After metal optimization, they found that the catalyst prepared at 800 °C showed the best performance, with an onset potential of 1.006 V, higher than that of the commercial Pt/C (20 wt%) catalyst.…”

“…The resulting AC/CoPc composite catalyst exhibited an onset potential of 1.006 V and a stability of 87.8% in 0.1 M KOH, comparable to commercial Pt/C (20%) catalyst. [126] 4.3. Biomass-Based Carbon/Single-Atom Catalysts It should be pointed out that doping is the most common method to load the single-atom sites upon biomass-based carbon supports.…”

Co3O4 Supported on Graphene-like Carbon by One-Step Calcination of Cobalt Phthalocyanine for Efficient Oxygen Reduction Reaction under Alkaline Medium

“…The presence of mixed valences of Co cations in the crystal structure could provide donor–acceptor chemisorption sites for the reversible adsorption of oxygen, thus favouring the ORR process [ 10 , 26 , 27 ]. Moreover, integrating the carbon-based materials with Co 3 O 4 can further improve the relatively high electrocatalytic activity and enhance the durability generated by a synergistic effect between the two components [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. However, there are only several works which report on the combination of Co 3 O 4 and carbon-based materials via a one-step synthesis method for ORR.…”