Alveoli-inspired facile transport structure of N-doped porous carbon for electrochemical energy applications

Dong Young Chung, Kyung Jae Lee, Seung Ho Yu, Minhyoung Kim, Stanfield Youngwon Lee, Ok Hee Kim, Hyun Jin Park, Yung Eun Sung

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

112 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Heteroatom-doped porous carbon materials have attracted much attention because of their extensive application in energy conversion and storage devices. Because the performance of fuel cells and the rate capability of supercapacitors depend significantly on multiple factors, such as electrical conductivity and transport rate of ions and reactants, designing these carbon-based materials to optimize performance factors is vital. In order to address these issues, alveoli that possess a hollow cavity where oxygen exchange can occur are synthesized, inspired by N-doped carbon materials with a high surface area and low transport resistance. By incorporating a dopamine coating on zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF), pore size is modified and electrical conducting pathways are constructed, resulting in changes to the reaction kinetics. These highly interconnected electron connection channels and proper pore sizes facilitate the diffusion of reactants and the conduction of electrons, leading to high activity of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which is comparable to Pt, and high rate performance in supercapacitors. Alveoli-inspired N-doped carbon materials with a high surface area and low transport resistance are synthesized. By incorporating a dopamine coating on a zeolitic imidazolate framework, pore size is modified and electrical conducting pathways are constructed, resulting in changes to the reaction kinetics. This is important for electrochemical energy applications.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1401309
JournalAdvanced Energy Materials
Volume5
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015 Feb 1
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • electrocatalysts
  • nitrogen-doped carbon
  • oxygen reduction reaction
  • supercapacitors

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • Materials Science(all)

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