Facile Aqueous Route to Nitrogen-Doped Mesoporous Carbons

Abstract

An aqueous-based approach for the scalable synthesis of nitrogen-doped porous carbons with high specific surface area (SSA) and high nitrogen content is presented. Low molecular weight polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is solubilized in water in the presence of ZnCl₂ that also acts as a volatile porogen during PAN pyrolysis to form mesoporous structures with significantly increased SSA. By templating with commercial SiO₂ nanoparticles, nanocellulose fillers or filter paper, nanocarbons with SSA = 1776, 1366, and 1501 m²/g, respectively and 10 wt % N content were prepared. The materials formed by this benign process showed excellent catalytic activity in oxygen reduction reaction via the four-electron mechanism.