Stöber synthesis of tannic acid-formaldehyde resin polymer spheres and their derived carbon nanospheres and nanocomposites for oxygen reduction reaction

Minmin Liu; Chao Cai; Jian Li; Jing Zhao; Wei Teng; Rui Liu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2018.05.070

Stöber synthesis of tannic acid-formaldehyde resin polymer spheres and their derived carbon nanospheres and nanocomposites for oxygen reduction reaction

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2018 Oct 15:528:1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.05.070. Epub 2018 May 23.

Authors

Minmin Liu¹, Chao Cai¹, Jian Li¹, Jing Zhao¹, Wei Teng², Rui Liu³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Advanced Civil Engineering Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, and Institute for Advanced Study, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China.
² State Key Laboratory for Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Advanced Civil Engineering Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, and Institute for Advanced Study, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China. Electronic address: ruiliu@tongji.edu.cn.

PMID: 29803955
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.05.070

Abstract

We report a facile Stöber approach to prepare polyphenol-based resin polymer spheres using tannic acid and formaldehyde as reactants. The tannic acid-formaldehyde (TAF) spheres directly convert into carbon spheres with monodispersity and structural integrity. In addition, TAF-Fe complex spheres are carbonized into Fe nanoparticles (NPs) decorated carbon spheres (TAF-C@Fe), which are successfully applied as electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline media. The electrocatalyst exhibits similar catalytic activity but better methanol tolerance performance to 20% commercial Pt/C in alkaline media. This feasible strategy presents a novel precursor for fabricating and tailoring the structure, composition, and size of polyphenol resin and derived carbon-based materials for energy conversion and storage.

Keywords: Carbon; Iron; ORR; Stöber; Tannic acid.