文章基本信息

标题：Hydrogel-derived non-precious electrocatalysts for efficient oxygen reduction
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作者：Bo You ; Peiqun Yin ; Junli Zhang 等
期刊名称：Scientific Reports
电子版ISSN：2045-2322
出版年度：2015
卷号：5
DOI：10.1038/srep11739
出版社：Springer Nature
摘要：The development of highly active, cheap and robust oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts to replace precious metal platinum is extremely urgent and challenging for renewable energy devices. Herein we report a novel, green and especially facile hydrogel strategy to construct N and B co-doped nanocarbon embedded with Co-based nanoparticles as an efficient non-precious ORR catalyst. The agarose hydrogel provides a general host matrix to achieve a homogeneous distribution of key precursory components including cobalt (II) acetate and buffer salts, which, upon freeze-drying and carbonization, produces the highly active ORR catalyst. The gel buffer containing Tris base, boric acid and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, commonly adopted for pH and ionic strength control, plays distinctively different roles here. These include a green precursor for N- and B-doping, a salt porogen and a Co²⁺ chelating agent, all contributing to the excellent ORR activity. This hydrogel-based process is potentially generalizable for many other catalytic materials.