Facile preparation of N-doped carbon nanofiber aerogels from bacterial cellulose as an efficient oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalyst

Carbon aerogels have attracted considerable attention over the past few decades as promising materials for catalyst supports, electrodes for supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries, and adsorbents. However, expensive and toxic precursors as well as complicated synthetic methods dramatically limit their large-scale production and application. In this work, we developed a facile and effective route to prepare a N-doped carbon nanofiber aerogel (N-CNFA) with low mass density, continuous porosity, high specific surface area, and electrical conductivity from a bacterial cellulose precursor. Because of the highly porous and interconnected 3D structure, the obtained N-doped carbon aerogel was used directly as a catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and it exhibited superior catalytic activity. This activity was much higher than that obtained without N-doping, and it can potentially be applied to high-performance fuel cells.

Graphical AbstractN-doped carbon nanofiber aerogel (CNFA) derived from bacterial cellulose (BC) was used as an oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalyst, and it had comparable catalytic activity to commercial Pt/C.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide