Metal-Free Ketjenblack Incorporated Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Sheets Derived from Gelatin as Oxygen Reduction Catalysts > Publication | UNIST YK RESEARCH

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Publication

Metal-Free Ketjenblack Incorporated Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Sheets Derived from Gelatin as Oxygen Reduction Catalysts
Author
Gyutae Nam, Joohyuk Park, Sun Tai Kim, Dong-bin Shin, Noejung Park, Youngsik Kim, Jang-Soo Lee, & Jaephil Cho
Journal
Nano Letters
Vol
14
Page
1870-1876
Year
2014
Electrocatalysts facilitating oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are vital components in advanced fuel cells and metal-air batteries. Here we report Ketjenblack incorporated nitrogen-doped carbon sheets derived from gelatin and apply these easily scalable materials as metal-free electrocatalysts for ORR. These carbon nanosheets demonstrate highly comparable catalytic activity for ORR as well as better durability than commercial Vulcan carbon supported Pt catalysts in alkaline media. Physico-chemical characterization and theoretical calculations suggest that proper combination of graphitic and pyridinic nitrogen species with more exposed edge sites effectively facilitates a formation of superoxide, [O2(ad)]−, via one-electron transfer, thus increasing catalytic activities for ORR. Our results demonstrate a novel strategy to expose more nitrogen doped edge sites by irregular stacked small sheets in developing better electrocatalysts for Zn-air batteries. These desirable architectures are embodied by an amphiphlilic gelatin mediated compatible synthetic strategy between hydrophobic carbon and aqueous water.