title: Hydrogel-derived non-precious electrocatalysts for efficient oxygen reduction.
abstract: The development of highly active, cheap and robust oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts to replace precious metal platinum is extremely urgent and challenging for renewable energy devices. Herein we report a novel, green and especially facile hydrogel strategy to construct N and B co-doped nanocarbon embedded with Co-based nanoparticles as an efficient non-precious ORR catalyst. The agarose hydrogel provides a general host matrix to achieve a homogeneous distribution of key precursory components including cobalt (II) acetate and buffer salts, which, upon freeze-drying and carbonization, produces the highly active ORR catalyst. The gel buffer containing Tris base, boric acid and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, commonly adopted for pH and ionic strength control, plays distinctively different roles here. These include a green precursor for N- and B-doping, a salt porogen and a Co(2+) chelating agent, all contributing to the excellent ORR activity. This hydrogel-based process is potentially generalizable for many other catalytic materials.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry &Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: You
authors.affiliation: Center of Advanced Nanocatalysis (CAN-USTC), University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Peiqun
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry &Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Junli
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center of Advanced Nanocatalysis (CAN-USTC), University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Daping
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry &Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Gaoli
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry &Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry &Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Huiqiao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry &Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|Center of Advanced Nanocatalysis (CAN-USTC), University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Zhaoxiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Center of Advanced Nanocatalysis (CAN-USTC), University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.|Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
authors.forename: Yadong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li