Bifunctional 3D n-doped porous carbon materials derived from paper towel for oxygen reduction reaction and supercapacitor

• 来源期刊: 科学通报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2018,（10）
• 页码范围: 621-628
• 页数: 8页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

Designing and fabricating cheap and active bifunctional materials is crucial for the development of renewable energy technologies. In this article, three-dimensional nitrogen-doped porous carbon materials (NDPC-X, in which X represents the pyrolysis temperature) were fabricated by simultaneous carbonization and activation of polypyrrole-coated paper towel protected by a silica layer followed by acid etching. The material had a high specific surface area (1,123.40 m2/g). The as-obtained NDPC-900 displayed outstanding activity as a catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) as well as an electrode with a high specific capacitance in a supercapacitor in an alkaline medium. The NDPC-900 catalyst for the ORR exhibited a more positive reduction peak potential of -0.068 V (vs. Hg|HgCl2) than that of Pt/C (-0.121 V), as well as better cycling stability and stronger methanol tolerance. Moreover, the NDPC-900 had a high specific capacitance of 379.50 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g, with a retention rate of 94.5％ after 10,000 cycles in 6 mol/L KOH electrolyte when used as an electrode in a supercapacitor. All these results were attributed to the effect of a large surface area, which provided electrochemically active sites. This work introduces an effective way to use biomass-derived materials for the synthesis of promising bifunctional carbon material for electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices.