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Polymerizable ionic liquid-derived carbon for oxygen reduction and evolution

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Abstract

A polymerizable ionic liquid is explored as the precursor to produce nitrogen-doped carbon powders. The ionic liquid is functionalized with NO3 − anions, which decompose and release gases during the pyrolysis process, facilitating the formation of a carbon foam. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy analyses show that the carbon foam is composed of curved carbon nanosheets with the maximum thickness of 70 nm. The favorable compositional (nitrogen doping to provide catalytically active sites) and morphological (curved nanosheet architecture to increase the contact area between electrolytes and catalytically active sites) characteristics make the present carbon powders a potential metal-free electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions. As expected, the nitrogen-doped and curved carbon nanosheets exhibit a considerable activity towards the oxygen reduction reaction as well as a moderate ability for catalyzing the oxygen evolution reaction in KOH solutions.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Innovation project of University Students (No.201610058095), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21303119, 21576211, 21504063 and 21501131), Tianjin Research Program of Application Foundation and Advanced Technology (No. 15JCQNJC05300 and 13JCYBJC41600Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.021314380019) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51501088).This work was also benefited from the help of Prof. Shuxin Ouyang from Tianjin University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin Polytechnic University, 399 Binshui West Road, Tianjin, 300387, People’s Republic of China

    Jian Gao, Cong Shen, Jianjun Tian, Zhen Yin & Xiaoyao Tan

  2. Tianjin Engineering Center for Safety Evaluation of Water Quality & Safeguards Technology, Tianjin Polytechnic University, 399 Binshui West Road, Tianjin, 300387, People’s Republic of China

    Jian Gao

  3. Nantong Institute of Materials Engineering, 58 Chongchuan Road, Nantong, 226001, People’s Republic of China

    Hongbin Lu

  4. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

    Jianyong Feng & Yizhong Huang

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  1. Jian Gao
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  2. Cong Shen
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Correspondence to Zhen Yin, Hongbin Lu or Jianyong Feng.

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Gao, J., Shen, C., Tian, J. et al. Polymerizable ionic liquid-derived carbon for oxygen reduction and evolution. J Appl Electrochem 47, 351–359 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-016-1039-9

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