N-doped mesoporous carbon as a bifunctional material for oxygen reduction reaction and supercapacitors

A N-doped mesoporous carbon (NMC-1) has been synthesized at relatively low temperature using chitosan as a nitrogen and carbon source, tetraethoxysilane as a soft template, and nickel nitrate as a catalyst. NMC-1 has a porous structure and heteroatoms such as N and O atoms, indicating that NMC-1 can contribute to electrocatalysis, electric double-layer capacitance, and pseudocapacitance. Hence, NMC-1 was used as a bifunctional material which shows effective activity as an electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline solution, and a high specific capacitance as an ultracapacitor (252 F/g at 0.2 A/g). The results demonstrate that the presented NMC-1 has potential applications as a renewable and environmentally friendly material in fuel cells and supercapacitors.

Graphical AbstractAn N-doped mesoporous carbon synthesized from chitosan showed effective activity as an electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction and high capacitance as an electrochemical energy storage material for ultracapacitors.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide