Liu Chen, Wang Xiaoxia, Kong Zhenyu, Zhang Lijie, Xin Zhefeng, She Xilin, Sun Jin, Yang Dongjiang, Li Daohao
State Key Laboratory of Bio-Fibers and Eco-Textiles, Shandong Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Bio-Based Fibers and Ecological Textiles, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, P. R. China.
Baoshan Hengfeng Textile Technology Company Limited, Baoshan 678000, China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022 May 18;14(19):22151-22160. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c03443. Epub 2022 May 4.
In the face of the increasingly serious rapid depletion of fossil fuels, exploring alternative energy conversion technologies may be a promising choice to alleviate this crisis. Transition metal carbides (TMCs)/carbon composites are considered as prospective electrocatalysts due to their high catalytic activities and structural stability. In this work, we report the simple synthesis of TMCs/N-doping carbon aerogels (TMCs/NCAs, including FeC/NCA, MoC/NCA, and FeC-MoC/NCA) for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) using protonated chitosan/metal complex anion-chelated aerogels. Among them, the FeC/NCA composite possesses efficient ORR activity (similar to Pt/C), and the FeC/NCA-assembled Zn-air battery exhibits high power densities of about 250 mW cm. The density functional theory calculation reveals that the presence of graphite-N, pyridine-N, and carbon defects in the carbon framework effectively reduces the free energy of ORR occurring in FeC. This work provides a simple and extensible strategy for the preparation of TMCs from chitosan, which is expected to be extended to other metal carbides.
面对日益严重的化石燃料快速枯竭问题，探索替代能源转换技术可能是缓解这一危机的一个有前景的选择。过渡金属碳化物（TMCs）/碳复合材料因其高催化活性和结构稳定性而被视为有前景的电催化剂。在这项工作中，我们报道了使用质子化壳聚糖/金属络合物阴离子螯合气凝胶简单合成用于氧还原反应（ORR）的TMCs/N掺杂碳气凝胶（TMCs/NCAs，包括FeC/NCA、MoC/NCA和FeC-MoC/NCA）。其中，FeC/NCA复合材料具有高效的ORR活性（类似于Pt/C），并且FeC/NCA组装的锌空气电池表现出约250 mW cm的高功率密度。密度泛函理论计算表明，碳骨架中石墨-N、吡啶-N和碳缺陷的存在有效地降低了FeC中ORR发生的自由能。这项工作为从壳聚糖制备TMCs提供了一种简单且可扩展的策略，有望扩展到其他金属碳化物。
