Highly Porous N-doped Graphitic Carbon from Bio-waste as Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Hybrid Na-air Battery

摘要

Noble metal-free bifunctional catalysts are essential to develop high-performance and cost-effective metal-air batteries. In this work, low cost carbon-based bifunctional electrocatalysts have been synthesized by treating highly porous carbon (HPC), derived from waste tree leaves, with urea [CO(NH_2)_2]. The electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activities of the HPC, N-doped HPC (N-HPC) and S-doped HPC (S-HPC) have been investigated. The N-doped HPC showed excellent bifunctional (ORR/OER) activity in comparison to pristine HPC and S-doped HPC. The bifunctional N-doped HPC have been tested as air-cathode for sodium-air battery applications.