Study On Preparation Of Electrocatalyst From Phenylenediamine And Its Electrocatalytic Properties

Developing heteroatom-doped carbon catalysts with high performance and stability in alkaline media for practical application of metal-air batteries or in acidic media for practical application of proton exchange membrane fuel cells is still difficult and challenging.Here,we proposed a bulk production of N,Fe-doped carbon nanospheres.The process involved a hydrothermal polymerization of m-phenylenediamine with FeCl3 as catalysts to catalyze the formation of poly(m-phenylenediamine)and annealing in NH3 atmosphere.The-typical product has high surface area(1408 m2 g-1),big total pore volume(0.90 cm3 g-1)and a number of micropores.The typical product possesses the excellent activity for ORR,endurance and tolerance to methanol in acidic circumstance.We also report the N-,Fe-doped carbon sphere/oriented carbon nanofiber nanocomposite(NFe-CS/CNF).N-,Fe-doped carbon spheres(NFe-CS)were derived from p-phenylenediamine and oriented N-,Fe-doped carbon nanofibers(NFe-CNF)were derived from o-phenylenediamine.3.89 at%of N and 0.38 at%of Fe were doped in a typical product,which has high surface area.The typical product exhibits a high ORR activity and stability in acidic media and reveals superior stability and tolerance to methanol than Pt/C.In alkaline media,the typical product shows superior activity to Pt/C.The performance of a zinc-air full cell under real battery operation conditions indicates that the typical product is a competitive alternative to commercial PtC.The unique structure of NFe-CS/CNF could create strong interactions between the nanospheres and oriented nanofibers,promote charger transfer at the interface and improve the conductivity.