Nitrogen-doped carbon foam as a highly durable metal-free electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline solution

Jianfeng Liu; Benjamin V. Cunning; Takeshi Daio; Albert Mufundirwa; Kazunari Sasaki; Stephen M. Lyth

doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2016.10.090

Nitrogen-doped carbon foam as a highly durable metal-free electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline solution

Jianfeng Liu, Benjamin V. Cunning, Takeshi Daio, Albert Mufundirwa, Kazunari Sasaki, Stephen M. Lyth^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Chemical And Process Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

31 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Nitrogen-doped carbon foam (CF_N) with large surface area is synthesized via a template-free, scalable combustion technique using diethanolamine as a nitrogen source. The resulting macroporous, open-cell foam has micron-scale hollow cells, surrounded by thin, graphene-like walls. This material is applied as a metal-free electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline KOH solution. The activity of this metal-free electrocatalyst at the half-wave potential is just 43 mV lower than that of platinum-decorated carbon (Pt/CB), but 87 mV lower than a commercially available Fe-containing non-precious electrocatalyst (Pajarito Powder, PP), suggesting that iron is important in achieving the highest activities. In durability tests measured over 60,000 potential cycles, Pt/CB and PP undergo significant degradation, whilst the non-precious CF_N electrocatalyst shows negligible change, indicating high stability of the electrochemical active sites compared with platinum or iron. Such metal-free catalysts therefore show great promise as electrocatalysts for specific alkaline ion exchange membrane fuel cell (AEMFC) applications where long lifetimes are most important.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	554-561
Number of pages	8
Journal	Electrochimica Acta
Volume	220
Early online date	14 Oct 2016
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2016.10.090
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2016

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the International Institute for Carbon Neutral Energy Research ( WPI-I2CNER ), sponsored by the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI), MEXT, Japan ; and the International Research Center for Hydrogen Energy, Kyushu University . This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (B), Grant Number 15K17898 ; and a Royal Society of Chemistry Mobility Fellowship . We also thank Yu Shundo for technical support.

Keywords

alkaline
durability
fuel cells
nitrogen-doped carbon
non-precious catalysis
carbon foam
electrocatalyst

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10.1016/j.electacta.2016.10.090

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title = "Nitrogen-doped carbon foam as a highly durable metal-free electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline solution",

abstract = "Nitrogen-doped carbon foam (CFN) with large surface area is synthesized via a template-free, scalable combustion technique using diethanolamine as a nitrogen source. The resulting macroporous, open-cell foam has micron-scale hollow cells, surrounded by thin, graphene-like walls. This material is applied as a metal-free electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline KOH solution. The activity of this metal-free electrocatalyst at the half-wave potential is just 43 mV lower than that of platinum-decorated carbon (Pt/CB), but 87 mV lower than a commercially available Fe-containing non-precious electrocatalyst (Pajarito Powder, PP), suggesting that iron is important in achieving the highest activities. In durability tests measured over 60,000 potential cycles, Pt/CB and PP undergo significant degradation, whilst the non-precious CFN electrocatalyst shows negligible change, indicating high stability of the electrochemical active sites compared with platinum or iron. Such metal-free catalysts therefore show great promise as electrocatalysts for specific alkaline ion exchange membrane fuel cell (AEMFC) applications where long lifetimes are most important.",

keywords = "alkaline, durability, fuel cells, nitrogen-doped carbon, non-precious catalysis, carbon foam, electrocatalyst",

author = "Jianfeng Liu and Cunning, \{Benjamin V.\} and Takeshi Daio and Albert Mufundirwa and Kazunari Sasaki and Lyth, \{Stephen M.\}",

note = "Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the International Institute for Carbon Neutral Energy Research ( WPI-I2CNER ), sponsored by the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI), MEXT, Japan ; and the International Research Center for Hydrogen Energy, Kyushu University . This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (B), Grant Number 15K17898 ; and a Royal Society of Chemistry Mobility Fellowship . We also thank Yu Shundo for technical support. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2016 Elsevier Ltd Jianfeng Liu, Benjamin V. Cunning, Takeshi Daio, Albert Mufundirwa, Kazunari Sasaki, Stephen M. Lyth, Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Foam as a Highly Durable Metal-Free Electrocatalyst for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Alkaline Solution, Electrochimica Acta, Volume 220, 2016, Pages 554-561, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2016.10.090 ",

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doi = "10.1016/j.electacta.2016.10.090",

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journal = "Electrochimica Acta",

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T1 - Nitrogen-doped carbon foam as a highly durable metal-free electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline solution

AU - Liu, Jianfeng

AU - Cunning, Benjamin V.

AU - Daio, Takeshi

AU - Mufundirwa, Albert

AU - Sasaki, Kazunari

AU - Lyth, Stephen M.

N1 - Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the International Institute for Carbon Neutral Energy Research ( WPI-I2CNER ), sponsored by the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI), MEXT, Japan ; and the International Research Center for Hydrogen Energy, Kyushu University . This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (B), Grant Number 15K17898 ; and a Royal Society of Chemistry Mobility Fellowship . We also thank Yu Shundo for technical support. Publisher Copyright: © 2016 Elsevier Ltd Jianfeng Liu, Benjamin V. Cunning, Takeshi Daio, Albert Mufundirwa, Kazunari Sasaki, Stephen M. Lyth, Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Foam as a Highly Durable Metal-Free Electrocatalyst for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Alkaline Solution, Electrochimica Acta, Volume 220, 2016, Pages 554-561, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2016.10.090

PY - 2016/12/1

Y1 - 2016/12/1

N2 - Nitrogen-doped carbon foam (CFN) with large surface area is synthesized via a template-free, scalable combustion technique using diethanolamine as a nitrogen source. The resulting macroporous, open-cell foam has micron-scale hollow cells, surrounded by thin, graphene-like walls. This material is applied as a metal-free electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline KOH solution. The activity of this metal-free electrocatalyst at the half-wave potential is just 43 mV lower than that of platinum-decorated carbon (Pt/CB), but 87 mV lower than a commercially available Fe-containing non-precious electrocatalyst (Pajarito Powder, PP), suggesting that iron is important in achieving the highest activities. In durability tests measured over 60,000 potential cycles, Pt/CB and PP undergo significant degradation, whilst the non-precious CFN electrocatalyst shows negligible change, indicating high stability of the electrochemical active sites compared with platinum or iron. Such metal-free catalysts therefore show great promise as electrocatalysts for specific alkaline ion exchange membrane fuel cell (AEMFC) applications where long lifetimes are most important.

AB - Nitrogen-doped carbon foam (CFN) with large surface area is synthesized via a template-free, scalable combustion technique using diethanolamine as a nitrogen source. The resulting macroporous, open-cell foam has micron-scale hollow cells, surrounded by thin, graphene-like walls. This material is applied as a metal-free electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline KOH solution. The activity of this metal-free electrocatalyst at the half-wave potential is just 43 mV lower than that of platinum-decorated carbon (Pt/CB), but 87 mV lower than a commercially available Fe-containing non-precious electrocatalyst (Pajarito Powder, PP), suggesting that iron is important in achieving the highest activities. In durability tests measured over 60,000 potential cycles, Pt/CB and PP undergo significant degradation, whilst the non-precious CFN electrocatalyst shows negligible change, indicating high stability of the electrochemical active sites compared with platinum or iron. Such metal-free catalysts therefore show great promise as electrocatalysts for specific alkaline ion exchange membrane fuel cell (AEMFC) applications where long lifetimes are most important.

KW - alkaline

KW - durability

KW - fuel cells

KW - nitrogen-doped carbon

KW - non-precious catalysis

KW - carbon foam

KW - electrocatalyst

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84993967766

U2 - 10.1016/j.electacta.2016.10.090

DO - 10.1016/j.electacta.2016.10.090

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84993967766

SN - 0013-4686

VL - 220

SP - 554

EP - 561

JO - Electrochimica Acta

JF - Electrochimica Acta

ER -

Nitrogen-doped carbon foam as a highly durable metal-free electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline solution

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