Phosphorus-doped hierarchical porous carbon as efficient metal-free electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy Vol. 44; no. 26; pp. 12941 - 12951
• Main Authors: Wu, Jiao, Yang, Ruizhi, Yan, Wenning
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 21.05.2019
• Subjects: Electrocatalyst; Hierarchical porous carbon; Oxygen reduction reaction; Phosphorus doping; Electrocatalyst; Phosphorus doping; Hierarchical porous carbon; Oxygen reduction reaction
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.02.094

Recently, fuel cells and metal-air batteries have attracted extensive attentions. Researching and developing non-noble metal catalyst with high electrocatalytic activity and low cost is one of the important challenges for these energy storage and conversion devices. In this study, phosphorus doped hierarchical porous carbon (P-HPC) has been firstly synthesized via a hard template method. The prepared PHPC possesses a unique porous structure which consists of micropores, mesopores and macropores simultaneously. The electrocatalytic activity of the PHPC toward ORR in KOH solution has been studied and compared with the ordinary structured phosphorus doped carbon (PC) and the commercial Pt/C by means of rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE) technique. The prepared PHPC exhibits an excellent electrocatalytic performance toward ORR in terms of the electrocatalytic activity, the reaction kinetics, the durability and the methanol tolerance. And the high electrocatalytic activity and durability of PHPC could be attributed to the special hierarchical porous structure. This research demonstrates that the rational design of the microstructures for catalyst plays significant roles in improving the catalytic activity for the ORR. •Through structure design, the prepared PHPC has a unique hierarchical structure.•PHPC possesses of much higher electrocatalytic activity toward ORR than PC.•The stability of PHPC is much superior to that of commercial Pt/C catalyst.•The high catalytic performance of PHPC is attributed to the 3D porous structure.