Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2017, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (7): 1429-1435.doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB201704131

• ARTICLE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Highly Dispersed Cobalt-Nitrogen Co-doped Carbon Nanofiber as Oxygen Reduction Reaction Catalyst

Yang ZHOU1,2,Qing-Qing CHENG2,Qing-Hong HUANG2,Zhi-Qing ZOU2,Liu-Ming YAN1,Hui YANG2,*()   

  1. 1 College of Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, P. R. China
    2 Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201210, P. R. China
  • Received:2017-02-20 Published:2017-05-31
  • Contact: Hui YANG E-mail:yangh@sari.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    the National High-tech R&D Program(863 Program)(2015AA043503);the Nature Science Foundation of China(21533005);the Nature Science Foundation of China(216673275)

Abstract:

Transition metal-nitrogen doped carbon-based catalysts have become promising alternatives to precious metal catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Here, we report a nitrogen-doped carbon nanofiber electrocatalyst coordinated with highly dispersed cobalt atoms (Co-N/C) with a high specific surface area prepared by an electrospinning method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) results confirmed that Co was highly dispersed within the prepared Co-N/C catalyst. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for N 1s spectra showed that the N species mainly existed in the forms of pyridinic N and graphitic N. This Co-N/C catalyst exhibited considerable ORR performance with onset and half-wave potentials at 0.92 and 0.80 V (relative to the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)), which are comparable to those of commercial Pt/C. With the prepared Co-N/C catalyst as the cathode, a Zn-air battery displayed an open-circuit potential of 1.54 V and a peak power density of 190 mW·cm-2 at 25℃, which suggest a promising application.

Key words: Oxygen reduction reaction, Transition metal-nitrogen doped catalyst, Carbon nanofibers, Highly dispersed, Electrospinning