title: Fog-like fluffy structured N-doped carbon with a superior oxygen reduction reaction performance to a commercial Pt/C catalyst.
abstract: A high-performance N-doped carbon catalyst with a fog-like, fluffy structure was prepared through pyrolyzing a mixture of polyacrylonitrile, melamine and iron chloride. The catalyst exhibits an excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance, with a half-wave potential 27 mV more positive than that of a commercial Pt/C catalyst (-0.120 vs. -0.147 V) and a higher diffusion-limiting current density than that of Pt/C (5.60 vs. 5.33 mA cm(-2)) in an alkaline medium. Moreover, it also shows outstanding methanol tolerance, remarkable stability and nearly 100% selectivity for the four-electron ORR process. To our knowledge, it is one of the most active doped carbon ORR catalysts in alkaline media to date. By comparing catalysts derived from precursors containing different amounts of melamine, we found that the added melamine not only gives the catalyst a fluffy structure but also modifies the N content and the distribution of N species in the catalyst, which we believe to be the origins for the catalyst's excellent ORR performance.
authors: The Key Laboratory of Fuel Cell Technology of Guangdong Province, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510641, China. chsjliao@scut.edu.cn.
authors: Chenghang
authors: C
authors: You
authors: Xiaoyuan
authors: X
authors: Zen
authors: Xiaochang
authors: X
authors: Qiao
authors: Fangfang
authors: F
authors: Liu
authors: Ting
authors: T
authors: Shu
authors: Li
authors: L
authors: Du
authors: Jianhuang
authors: J
authors: Zeng
authors: Shijun
authors: S
authors: Liao