Rational synthesis of N/S-doped porous carbons as high efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction and Zn-Air batteries

Emerging Nitrogen and Sulfur Co-doped Carbon Materials for Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion

The growing global energy demands, coupled with the imperative for sustainable environmental challenges, have sparked significant interest in electrochemical energy storage and conversion (EESC) technologies. Metal-free heteroatom-doped carbon materials, especially those codoped with nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S), have gained prominence due to their exceptional conductivity, large specific surface area, remarkable chemical stability, and enhanced electrochemical performance. The strategic incorporation of N and S atoms into the carbon framework plays a pivotal role in modulating electron distribution and creating catalytically active sites, thereby significantly enhancing the EESC performance. This review examines the key synthetic strategies for fabricating N, S codoped carbon materials (NSDCMs) and provides a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in NSDCMs for EESC applications. These encompass various electrochemical energy storage systems such as supercapacitors, alkali-ion batteries, and lithium-sulfur batteries. Energy conversion processes, including hydrogen evolution, oxygen reduction/evolution, and carbon dioxide reduction are also covered. Finally, future research directions for NSDCMs are discussed in the EESC field, aiming to highlight their promising potential and multifunctional capabilities in driving further advancements in electrochemical energy systems.

FeNi decorated nitrogen-doped hollow carbon spheres as ultra-stable bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst for rechargeable zinc-air battery with 2.7% decay after 300 hours cycling

Research on non-noble metal bifunctional electrocatalysts with high efficiency and long-lasting stability is crucial for many energy storage devices such as zinc-air batteries. In this report, nitrogen-doped porous hollow carbon spheres with a size of about 300 nm were fabricated using a modified Stöber method and decorated with an FeNi alloy through a pyrolytic reduction process, resulting in a promising bifunctional electrocatalyst for both the oxygen evolution reaction and oxygen reduction reaction. The as-prepared FeNi@NHCS electrocatalyst exhibits excellent bifunctional activity in KOH electrolyte, attributed to its mesoporous structure, large specific surface area, and the strong coupling between the FeNi nanoalloy and nitrogen-doped carbon carriers. The electrocatalyst demonstrates excellent ORR performance with E1/2 = 0.828 V and OER activity with Ej=10 mA = 1.51 V. A zinc-air battery using FeNi@NHCS as the air electrode achieves an open-circuit voltage of 1.432 V and a maximum power density of 181.8 mW cm-2. After 300 h of galvanostatic charge-discharge cycles, the charge-discharge voltage gap (ΔU) of the battery had only decayed by 2.7%, demonstrating superior cycling stability.

Successful Manufacturing Protocols of N-Rich Carbon Electrodes Ensuring High ORR Activity: A Review

The exploration and development of different carbon nanomaterials happening over the past years have established carbon electrodes as an important electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction. Metal-free catalysts are especially promising potential alternatives for replacing Pt-based catalysts. This article describes recent advances and challenges in the three main synthesis manners (i.e., pyrolysis, hydrothermal method, and chemical vapor deposition) as effective methods for the production of metal-free carbon-based catalysts. To improve the catalytic activity, heteroatom doping the structure of graphene, carbon nanotubes, porous carbons, and carbon nanofibers is important and makes them a prospective candidate for commercial applications. Special attention is paid to providing an overview on the recent major works about nitrogen-doped carbon electrodes with various concentrations and chemical environments of the heteroatom active sites. A detailed discussion and summary of catalytic properties in aqueous electrolytes is given for graphene and porous carbon-based catalysts in particular, including recent studies performed in the authors’ research group. Finally, we discuss pathways and development opportunities approaching the practical use of mainly graphene-based catalysts for metal–air batteries and fuel cells.

Carbon-based metal-free electrocatalysts: from oxygen reduction to multifunctional electrocatalysis

Since the discovery of N-doped carbon nanotubes as the first carbon-based metal-free electrocatalyst (C-MFEC) for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in 2009, C-MFECs have shown multifunctional electrocatalytic activities for many reactions beyond ORR, such as oxygen evolution reaction (OER), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO₂RR), nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR), and hydrogen peroxide production reaction (H₂O₂PR). Consequently, C-MFECs have attracted a great deal of interest for various applications, including metal-air batteries, water splitting devices, regenerative fuel cells, solar cells, fuel and chemical production, water purification, to mention a few. By altering the electronic configuration and/or modulating their spin angular momentum, both heteroatom(s) doping and structural defects (e.g., atomic vacancy, edge) have been demonstrated to create catalytic active sites in the skeleton of graphitic carbon materials. Although certain C-MFECs have been made to be comparable to or even better than their counterparts based on noble metals, transition metals and/or their hybrids, further research and development are necessary in order to translate C-MFECs for practical applications. In this article, we present a timely and comprehensive, but critical, review on recent advancements in the field of C-MFECs within the past five years or so by discussing various types of electrocatalytic reactions catalyzed by C-MFECs. An emphasis is given to potential applications of C-MFECs for energy conversion and storage. The structure-property relationship for and mechanistic understanding of C-MFECs will also be discussed, along with the current challenges and future perspectives.

High-Quality CoFeP Nanocrystal/N, P Dual-Doped Carbon Composite as a Novel Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Rechargeable Zn-Air Battery

A novel composite catalyst (CoFeP@C) was constructed by high-quality CoFeP nanoparticles embedded in a N, P dual-doped carbon matrix. These CoFeP nanoparticles are rich in active sites of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at surfaces and provide metallic conductivity in their bulk phases. The N, P dual-doped carbon matrix provided abundant active sites of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and formed a conductive network substrate. The ideal composite structure endowed CoFeP@C with highly efficient bifunctional performance for catalyzing both OER and ORR, accordingly making CoFeP@C an ideal catalyst for rechargeable Zn-air batteries. The liquid Zn-air battery of CoFeP@C has achieved a large power density of 143.5 mW/cm² and can be charged and discharged stably for 200 h (1200 cycles). The solid-state Zn-air battery of CoFeP@C has achieved a power density of 72.6 mW/cm² and can stably run for 20 h. This work has deepened the understanding of synergistic catalysis and paved one way for the development of high-performance bifunctional catalysts.

Improving the Performance of Zn-Air Batteries with N-Doped Electroexfoliated Graphene

The constantly growing demand for active, durable, and low-cost electrocatalysts usable in energy storage devices, such as supercapacitors or electrodes in metal-air batteries, has triggered the rapid development of heteroatom-doped carbon materials, which would, among other things, exhibit high catalytic activity in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). In this article, a method of synthesizing nitrogen-doped graphene is proposed. Few-layered graphene sheets (FL-graphene) were prepared by electrochemical exfoliation of commercial graphite in a Na2SO4 electrolyte with added calcium carbonate as a separator of newly-exfoliated FL-graphene sheets. Exfoliated FL-graphene was impregnated with a suspension of green algae used as a nitrogen carrier. Impregnated FL-graphene was carbonized at a high temperature under the flow of nitrogen. The N-doped FL-graphene was characterized through instrumental methods: high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. Electrochemical performance was determined using cyclic voltamperometry and linear sweep voltamperometry to check catalytic activity in ORR. The N-doped electroexfoliated FL-graphene obeyed the four-electron transfer pathways, leading us to further test these materials as electrode components in rechargeable zinc-air batteries. The obtained results for Zn-air batteries are very important for future development of industry, because the proposed graphene electrode materials do not contain any heavy and noble metals in their composition.

Synthesis of Fe3C@porous carbon nanorods via carbonizing Fe complexes for oxygen reduction reaction and Zn–air battery

The FeCNRs were controlled prepared via carbonizing the Fe complexes and their activities on ORR was found to be suitable for Zn–air battery application.

Sulfuration of an Fe-N-C Catalyst Containing Fex C/Fe Species to Enhance the Catalysis of Oxygen Reduction in Acidic Media and for Use in Flexible Zn-Air Batteries

During the preparation of atomically dispersed Fe-N-C catalysts, it is difficult to avoid the formation of iron-carbide-containing iron clusters ("Fe_x C/Fe"), along with the desired carbon matrix containing dispersed FeN_x sites. As a result, an uncertain amount of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) occurs, making it difficult to maximize the catalytic efficiency. Herein, sulfuration is used to boost the activity of Fe_x C/Fe, forming an improved system, "FeNC-S-Fe_x C/Fe", for catalysis involving oxygen. Various spectroscopic techniques are used to define the composition of the active sites, which include Fe-S bonds at the interface of the now-S-doped carbon matrix and the Fe_x C/Fe clusters. In addition to outstanding activity in basic media, FeNC-S-Fe_x C/Fe exhibits improved ORR activity and durability in acidic media; its half-wave potential of 0.821 V outperforms the commercial Pt/C catalyst (20%), and its activity does not decay even after 10 000 cycles. Interestingly, the catalytic activity for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) simultaneously improves. Thus, FeNC-S-Fe_x C/Fe can be used as a high-performance bifunctional catalyst in Zn-air batteries. Theoretical calculations and control experiments show that the original FeN_x active centers are enhanced by the Fe_x C/Fe clusters and the Fe-S and C-S-C bonds.

Template-Free Synthesis of Two-Dimensional Fe/N Codoped Carbon Networks as Efficient Oxygen Reduction Reaction Electrocatalysts

A direct pyrolysis and template-free synthesis strategy is demonstrated to synthesize the two-dimensional (2-D) Fe/N codoped carbon networks by virtue of 2-D graphitic-carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) intermediates derived from melamine. Because of the stabilization and steric hindrance of additional N ligands with bisnitrogen-containing groups (phenanthroline, phthalonitrile, and phenylenediamine), the thin graphitic-layered Fe/N codoped carbon materials have successfully inherited the 2-D morphology from the g-C₃N₄ intermediate after direct carbonization treatment. After the easy removal of inactive Fe particles, the resultant sample exhibits numerous well-dispersed Fe atoms embedded in the carbon layers with a hierarchical (meso- and micro-) porous structure. Owing to the high active site density and open porous structure, the thin graphitic-layered Fe/N codoped carbon electrocatalysts exhibit superior oxygen reduction reaction performance (a half-wave potential of 0.88 V and a kinetics current density of 3.8 mA cm^-2), even better than the commercial Pt/C catalysts (0.85 V and 1.6 mA cm^-2, respectively). The facile and effective synthesis strategy without template to build the graphene-like nanoarchitectures inherited from the 2-D intermediates will lead to a great development of 2-D carbon materials in various electrochemical applications.

Hybrid of Fe3C@N, S co-doped carbon nanotubes coated porous carbon derived from metal organic frameworks as an efficient catalyst towards oxygen reduction

High cost, low reserves and poor stability of the Pt-based catalysts have hindered their large-scale applications. To solve these problems, we develop an efficient method to fabricate a hybrid of Fe₃C@N, S co-doped carbon nanotubes coated porous carbon as a superior catalyst towards ORR. The resulted Fe-N-S/C sample exhibits excellent performance in alkaline solution, with a half-wave potential of 0.89 V, which is 30 mV higher than that of commercial Pt/C. The electron transfer number is 3.9 at 0.4 V, indicating a direct four-electron (4e^-) pathway towards ORR, and the kinetic current density J_k is 7.96 mA cm^-2 at 0.88 V. After 5000 repeated potential cycling test, only 4 mV of down-shift in its half-wave potential was detected, which manifested the remarkable stability of Fe-N-S/C. The electrochemical performance is attributed to the ordered porous structure, high content of active N-species and the synergistic effect between Fe₃C group and S dopants.