Highly Active Wood-Derived Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Catalyst for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Kätlin Kaare; Eric Yu; Aleksandrs Volperts; Galina Dobele; Aivars Zhurinsh; Alexander Dyck; Gediminas Niaura; Loreta Tamasauskaite-Tamasiunaite; Eugenijus Norkus; Mindaugas Andrulevičius; Mati Danilson; Ivar Kruusenberg

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c01974

Highly Active Wood-Derived Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Catalyst for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction

ACS Omega. 2020 Sep 11;5(37):23578-23587. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c01974. eCollection 2020 Sep 22.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Chemistry, University of Tartu, Ravila 14a, 50411 Tartu, Estonia.
² National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, Akadeemia tee 23, 10213 Tallinn, Estonia.
³ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Gilman Hall, Berkeley 94720, California, United States of America.
⁴ Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry, Dzerbenes street 27, Riga LV-1006, Latvia.
⁵ DLR Institute of Networked Energy Systems, Urban and Residential Technologies, Carl-von-Ossietzky-Str. 15, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany.
⁶ State Research Institute Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Savanoriu̧ ave. 231, LT-02300 Vilnius, Lithuania.
⁷ Institute of Materials Science of Kaunas University of Technology, Barsausko str. 59, Kaunas LT-51423, Lithuania.
⁸ Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials Physics, Department of Materials and Environmental Technology, Tallinn University of Technology, Ehitajate tee 5, 19086 Tallinn, Estonia.

Abstract

In this recent decade, great interest has risen to develop metal-free and cheap, biomass-derived electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Herein, we report a facile strategy to synthesize an electrochemically active nanocarbon material from the renewable and biological resource, wood biomass. The ORR activity of the catalyst material was investigated in 0.1 M KOH solution by employing the rotating disc electrode method. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy were employed to obtain more information about the catalyst material's morphology and composition. The material exhibits outstanding electrocatalytic activity with low onset potential and high current density, similar to that of a commercial Pt/C catalyst in an alkaline medium. The results clearly ascertain that wooden biomass can be easily transformed into novel carbon nanostructures with superior ORR activity and possibility to be used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries.