Scalable nitrogen-enriched porous sub-100 nm graphitic carbon nanocapsules for efficient oxygen reduction reaction in different media
Author | Eid, Kamel A.M. |
Author | Abdelhafiz, Ali Ahmed |
Author | Abdel-Azeim, Safwat |
Author | Varma, Rajender S. |
Author | Shibl, Mohamed F. |
Available date | 2025-10-09T05:52:35Z |
Publication Date | 2023 |
Publication Name | Green Chemistry |
Resource | Scopus |
Identifier | http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d3gc01790g |
ISSN | 14639262 |
Abstract | The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is deemed a sustainable energy source; however, developing green, earth-abundant, and efficient noble-metal-free catalysts for efficient ORR in different media remains a grand challenge. Herein, we present a scalable, facile, environmentally benign, and one-pot strategy for the fabrication of eco-friendly nitrogen-enriched graphitic-like hierarchical porous sub-100 nm carbon (denoted as N-HMPC) nanocapsules with controllable N-content for ORR. The synthesis route is based on in situ organic-organic self-assembly of Pluronic F127 copolymer micelles and resorcinol-melamine-formaldehyde in the presence of a silica template followed by carbonization and eroding the silica core. The as-formed N-HMPC nanocapsules have a core-shell morphology (?84 nm), hierarchical porosity, high surface area of (790 m2 g-1), and tunable nitrogen content (9-25%). Intriguingly, N-HMPC nanocapsules exhibit an analogous ORR activity to the commercial Pt/C catalyst (20% Pt) in the alkaline and acidic electrolytes, besides superior durability and inimitable tolerance to methanol and CO poisonings due to the hollow core-shell architecture and abundant nitrogen. A judicious combination of experimental and density functional theory (DFT) simulations delineated the ORR pathway and mechanism for N-HMPC in acidic and alkaline electrolytes. The presented approach may open new avenues for the rational design of metal-free green electrocatalysts for ORR. |
Sponsor | This work was supported by Gas Processing Center (GPC), College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar. The authors thank King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) for providing its computational resources (supercomputer Shaheen). |
Language | en |
Publisher | Royal Society of Chemistry |
Subject | Oxygen Reduction Reaction Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Metal-Free Electrocatalyst Hierarchical Porosity Density Functional Theory |
Type | Article |
Pagination | 6748-6758 |
Issue Number | 17 |
Volume Number | 25 |
ESSN | 14639270 |
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Center for Sustainable Development Research [359 items ]