Protic Ionic Liquids and Salts as Versatile Carbon Precursors

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society Vol. 136; no. 5; pp. 1690 - 1693
• Main Authors: Zhang, Shiguo, Miran, Muhammed Shah, Ikoma, Ai, Dokko, Kaoru, Watanabe, Masayoshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 05.02.2014
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/ja411981c

Instead of traditional polymer precursors and complex procedures, easily prepared and widely obtainable nitrogen-containing protic ionic liquids and salts were explored as novel, small-molecule precursors to prepare carbon materials (CMs) via direct carbonization without other treatments. Depending on the precursor structure, the resultant CMs can be readily obtained with a relative yield of up to 95.3%, a high specific surface area of up to 1380 m2/g, or a high N content of up to 11.1 wt%, as well as a high degree of graphitization and high conductivity (even higher than that of graphite). One of the carbons, which possesses a high surface area and a high content of pyridinic N, exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity toward the oxygen reduction reaction in an alkaline medium, as revealed by an onset potential, half-wave potential, and kinetic current density comparable to those of commercial 20 wt% Pt/C. These low-cost and versatile precursors are expected to be important building blocks for CMs.