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Electrocatalytic activity enhancement of N,P-doped carbon nanosheets derived from polymerizable ionic liquids

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Abstract

A facile preparation method was developed to obtain two-dimensional (2D) metal-free N, P-co-doped carbon nanosheets with sp2/sp3 interface derived from polymerizable ionic liquids (PIL) and ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3), exhibiting better electrocatalytic activity than that of the commercial Pt/C toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The introduction of NH4NO3 can benefit the formation of carbon nanosheets structure and hierarchical porous structure due to decomposition and carbonization of polymer and gases emission resulting from ammonia nitrate, which can be confirmed by the SEM, TEM and BET results. The sp3 carbon and doping effect of heteroatoms of N, P can be investigated with the XPS, Raman and NEXAFS spectroscopy. The present work developed a facile method to prepare heteroatom-co-doped carbon as metal-free catalyst toward ORR with superior catalytic performance.

Graphic abstract

Two-dimensional carbon nanosheets doped with N, P atoms can be successfully prepared via pyrolysis process of the polymerizable ionic liquids ([Hvim]DHP) and NH4NO3, demonstrating superior electrocatalytic performance toward oxygen reduction in alkaline media.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21776219, 21872104, 21676200, 51761135106, 21673273, 21872163) and Innovation Project of University Students (No. 201610058095). J. Gao is also grateful to the funding support from China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2018M631746).

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Author notes

  1. Yingli Xia and Zhanzhan Zhang have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tiangong University, 399 Binshui West Road, Tianjin, 300387, People’s Republic of China

    Yingli Xia, Zhanzhan Zhang, Fengxia Qin, Jian Gao & Xiaoyao Tan

  2. College of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, 29 13th Avenue, TEDA, Tianjin, 300457, People’s Republic of China

    Zhen Yin

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tianjin, 300387, People’s Republic of China

    Hong Wang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Precision Measuring Technology and Instruments, Centre of MicroNano Manufacturing Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China

    Zongwei Xu

  5. School of Chemistry and Chemical, In-situ Center for Physical Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, People’s Republic of China

    Xi Liu

  6. Xi’an Key Laboratory of New Energy Materials and Devices, Institute of Advanced Electrochemical Energy & School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, 710048, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Xifei Li

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  1. Yingli Xia
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Correspondence to Jian Gao, Xifei Li or Zhen Yin.

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Xia, Y., Zhang, Z., Qin, F. et al. Electrocatalytic activity enhancement of N,P-doped carbon nanosheets derived from polymerizable ionic liquids. J Appl Electrochem 51, 669–679 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-020-01506-0

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