Efficient oxygen reduction reaction catalyst derived from ZnO@ zeolite imidazolate framework nanowire composite

摘要

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is one of the core reactions that occur in fuel cells and metal air batteries. Metal-free catalysts such as porous carbons are promising candidates for ORR and the performance of porous carbons strongly depends on their nanostructure. Herein, we reported the synthesis of high surface area N doped carbon nanotube (CNT-900) by using ZnO@zeolite imidazolate framework (ZnO@ZIF-8) nanowire as a precursor. When used for an ORR catalyst, the CNT-900 show obvious superior performance compared with the carbon derived from ZIF-8. In addition, it exhibits comparable activity with 20 wt% Pt/C and superior stability. Combined with green and facile synthesis strategy, the method in this work can be easily extended to synthesis other nanomaterials for energy storage and conversion application.