Preparation of nitrogen-doped graphitic carboncages as electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanomaterials have been attracted increasing research interests in lithium-O2 and Zinc-O2 batteries, ultracapacitors and fuel cells. Herein, nitrogen-doped graphitic carboncages (N-GCs) have been prepared by mesoporous Fe2O3 as a catalyst and lysine as a nitrogen doped carbon source. Due to the catalysis of Fe2O3, the N-GCs have a high graphitization degree at a low temperature, which is detected by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectrometer. Simultaneously, the heteroatom nitrogen is in-situ doped into carbon network. Therefore, the excellent electrocatalysis performance for oxygen reduction reaction is expected. The electrochemical measurement indicates that The N-GCs for oxygen reduction reaction in O2-saturated 0.1 mol L−1 KOH show a four-electron transfer process and exhibit excellent electrocatalytic activity (EORR = -0.05 V vs. Ag/AgCl) and good stability (i/i0 = 90% at -0.35 V after 4000 s with a rotation rate of 1600 rpm).