Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS) , Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University (SNU) , Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Nov 29;9(47):41303-41313. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b13799. Epub 2017 Nov 14.
Nitrogen-doped porous carbon materials have been highlighted as promising alternatives to high-cost platinum in various electrochemical energy applications. However, protocols to generate effective pore structure are still challenging, which hampers mass production and utilization of carbon materials. Here, we suggest a facile and effective method for hierarchical porous carbon by a single-step carbonization of coffee waste (CW) with ZnCl. The CW, which is one of the most earth-abundant organic waste, can be successfully converted to nitrogen-doped porous carbon. It shows outstanding oxygen reduction activity and durability comparable to the state-of-the-art platinum, and the half-wave potential is also comparable to the best metal-free electrocatalysts in alkaline media. Finally, we apply it to counter electrode of dye-sensitized solar cell, whose photovoltaic efficiency surpasses the one made with conventional platinum electrode. We demonstrate the feasibility of our strategies for highly efficient, cheap, and environment-friendly electrocatalyst to replace platinum in various electrochemical energy applications.
氮掺杂多孔碳材料在各种电化学能源应用中被作为替代高成本铂的有前途的材料而受到关注。然而，生成有效孔结构的方案仍然具有挑战性，这阻碍了碳材料的大规模生产和利用。在这里，我们提出了一种简便有效的方法，通过咖啡渣（CW）与 ZnCl 的一步碳化来制备分级多孔碳。CW 是最丰富的有机废物之一，可以成功地转化为氮掺杂多孔碳。它表现出与最先进的铂相当的优异的氧还原活性和耐久性，半波电位也与碱性介质中最好的无金属电催化剂相当。最后，我们将其应用于染料敏化太阳能电池的对电极，其光电效率超过了使用传统铂电极的电池。我们证明了我们的策略用于高效、廉价、环保的电催化剂替代铂在各种电化学能源应用中的可行性。
