A facile preparation of nitrogen-doped porous carbons from renewable as efficient catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction

Abstract Developing cost-effective and high active catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is vital for the application of fuel cells. In this work, nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanosheets(N-PC) derived from biomass waste soybean residue were prepared by a facile combining method of solid state grinding and pyrolysing, using g-C3N4 as both nitrogen source and sacrificial template. The benefit of this facile process is that neither a designated template nor a chemical activating agent is required. The influence of g-C3N4 level on the structure and ORR behavior of the resulting N-PC was systematically investigated by means of spectroscopy (XPS), surface area analysis (BET), electron microscopy (TEM, SEM) et al., and electrochemical experiments. The optimized sample possesses appropriate defect structure, high BET surface area and pore volume (483 m2 g−1 and 1.57 cm3 g−1), and high N content (6.04 at.%), and exhibits decent activity and methanol tolerance in ORR process. Its superior stability versus the commercial Pt/C is also evidenced by almost 50% higher in chronoamperometric current response after 3600 s testing duration. This work supplies a simple and economical route to synthesize superior electrocatalyst for ORR on the basis of biomass waste.