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Cobalt and nitrogen-doped carbon with enlarged pore size derived from ZIF-67 by a NaCl-assisted pyrolysis strategy towards oxygen reduction reaction

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Abstract

In this work, a facile method is reported for the synthesis of ZIF-67-derived cobalt and nitrogen-doped carbon (Co-N-C) materials with enlarged average pore sizes as electrocatalysts towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The pore diameters of the Co-N-C can be greatly enlarged using NaCl as an additive during the pyrolyzing process. Thermo-gravimetry (TG) results suggest that NaCl could facilitate the structural decomposition of ZIF-67, resulting in the adjusted physiochemical properties of the obtained Co-N-C materials. The CoNC-1NaCl-700 and CoNC-1NaCl-800 materials derived from ZIF-67 in the presence of NaCl at relatively high pyrolyzing temperatures (i.e., 700 °C, 800 °C) exhibit superior catalytic activity compared with the CoNC materials derived from pure ZIF-67, which could be due to their unique structures of larger average pore sizes, higher surface areas, higher contents of pyridinic-N and graphitic-N. The onset potential of the CoNC-1NaCl-800 towards ORR is 0.94 V (vs. RHE) and the half-wave potential is 0.84 V (vs. RHE), which are comparable with that of commercial Pt/C.

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Funding

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21805244, 51776188).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Liuhe Road 318#, Hangzhou, 310023, Zhejiang Province, China

    Yange Suo, Zihan Zhang, Zhiguo Zhang & Guilin Hu

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  1. Yange Suo
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  2. Zihan Zhang
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Correspondence to Zhiguo Zhang.

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Suo, Y., Zhang, Z., Zhang, Z. et al. Cobalt and nitrogen-doped carbon with enlarged pore size derived from ZIF-67 by a NaCl-assisted pyrolysis strategy towards oxygen reduction reaction. Ionics 27, 289–303 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-020-03776-2

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