Nitrogen and Cobalt Co-Coped Carbon Materials Derived from Biomass Chitin as High-Performance Electrocatalyst for Aluminum-Air Batteries

Abstract

Development of convenient, economic electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline medium is of great significance to practical applications of aluminum-air batteries. Herein, a biomass chitin-derived carbon material with high ORR activities has been prepared and applied as electrocatalysts in Al-air batteries. The obtained cobalt, nitrogen co-doped carbon material (CoNC) exhibits the positive onset potential 0.86 V vs. RHE (reversible hydrogen electrode) and high-limiting current density 5.94 mA cm−2. Additionally, the durability of the CoNC material in alkaline electrolyte shows better stability when compared to the commercial Pt/C catalyst. Furthermore, the Al-air battery using CoNC as an air cathode catalyst provides the power density of 32.24 mW cm−2 and remains the constant discharge voltage of 1.17 V at 20 mA cm−2. This work not only provides a facile method to synthesize low-cost and efficient ORR electrocatalysts for Al-air batteries, but also paves a new way to explore and utilize high-valued biomass materials.

Vitamin Derived Nitrogen Doped Carbon Nanotubes for Efficient Oxygen Reduction Reaction and Arsenic Removal from Contaminated Water

“…Therefore, there is a need for alternatives that are based on non-noble metals. Amongst the various alternatives, elements of iron triad, namely iron [1,2], cobalt [3,4] and nickel [5,6], and ntrogen-doped carbon materials [7,8], have been extensively explored as low-cost and high-performance electrocatalysts. Amongst these, iron nano-particles that are embedded in nitrogen doped conductive carbon nanostructures have aroused tremendous interest due to its excellent catalytic activity.…”

Red Blood Cells-Derived Iron Self–Doped 3D Porous Carbon Networks for Efficient Oxygen Reduction

“…However, pristine carbon materials with limited ORR activity are inert and have the following disadvantages: (i) low degree of dopant atoms, such as pyridinic N, resulting in a lack of catalytically active sites; (ii) underdeveloped porous structure, leading to low effective specific surface area, which affects the exposure of active sites and the transport of substances; (iii) poor stability. Heteroatom doped carbon-based materials with low cost, easy handleability, earth abundance and long-term stability have been proposed to be an effective way to address these issues [18][19][20][21]. Among the studied doped carbon materials, codoped metal-nitrogen carbon materials have aroused great interest because of their unique electronic structures and promising ORR activities both in alkaline and acidic media [22][23][24].…”

Optimization Strategies of Preparation of Biomass-Derived Carbon Electrocatalyst for Boosting Oxygen Reduction Reaction: A Minireview

“…The electrocatalytic activity of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) significantly determines the performance of current energy conversion and storage devices, including various fuel cells and metal-air batteries [1][2][3]. Due to the sluggish kinetics of the ORR process, electrocatalysts have usually been required to accelerate the reaction rates and decrease the overpotentials [4].…”

“…In recent years, designing efficient carbon electrocatalysts with sustainable and abundant biomass materials as precursors have been rapidly emerged owing to their cost-effective fabrication and environmentally friendly [27]. At present, various biomass materials have been reported as promising precursors to synthesize porous carbon, such as sugar [28], lignocellulose [29], animal biomass [30,31], natural cattail fibers [32], haddock peel [33], dandelion seeds [34], mulberry leaves [35], chitosan [36], gelatin [37], chitin [3] etc. Besides the commonly used method of thermal decomposition to prepare biomass-derived carbon electrocatalysts, several strategies including activation [38], hydrothermal carbonization [39,40], molten salt carbonization [41] and template method [42,43] have been proposed.…”