N-,P-and Fe Co-Doped Nanoporous Carbon Derived From Plant Biomass

Electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline media are crucial in electrochemical devices such as fuel cells and metal-air batteries.Here,we first report the N,P and Fe doped nanoporous carbon catalyst derived from the recyclable plant biomass corn silk using a simple approach.Corn silk is a cheap and recyclable plant biomass,which can offer a good basis for the development of the catalysts with low-cost and high yield production.The typical product by we prepared exhibits the remarkably higher ORR activity,superior stability and tolerance to methanol poisoning effects in alkaline media than the state-of-the-art 20%Pt/C catalyst.The value of onset potential and half-peak potential of the product is 30 mV and 26 mV more than that of the Pt/C,respectively.The typical product has high BET surface area(1038.9 m2 g-1)and pore volume(0.83 cm3 g-1)and it is one of the best catalysts for ORR up to now.The metal-air battery is a promising energy device due to the high energy density,power density and safety.Zn as the anode material has received much attention because of its abundance,low-cost and environmental friendliness.However,the performance of the zinc-air(Zn-air)battery is restricted largely by the poor performance of the air electrode,in which the process of oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)is very slow.Therefore,it is very important to develop efficient catalysts for the ORR in an air electrode for highperformance Zn-air batteries.The N-,or P-,or Fe-doped carbon electrocatalysts for ORR have also been emerging.The N-P-Fe catalyst also showed higher voltage and higher specific capacity than the Pt/C in a zinc-air battery and it may be an alternative to Pt/C in the practical application of the zinc-air battery.