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 full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide