From metal-organic framework to nitrogen-decorated nanoporous carbons: high CO₂ uptake and efficient catalytic oxygen reduction

Arshad Aijaz; Naoko Fujiwara; Qiang Xu

doi:10.1021/ja5003907

From metal-organic framework to nitrogen-decorated nanoporous carbons: high CO₂ uptake and efficient catalytic oxygen reduction

J Am Chem Soc. 2014 May 14;136(19):6790-3. doi: 10.1021/ja5003907. Epub 2014 May 5.

Authors

Arshad Aijaz¹, Naoko Fujiwara, Qiang Xu

Affiliation

¹ National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) , Ikeda, Osaka 563-8577, Japan.

PMID: 24786634
DOI: 10.1021/ja5003907

Abstract

High-surface-area N-decorated nanoporous carbons have been successfully synthesized using the N-rich metal-organic framework ZIF-8 as a template and precursor along with furfuryl alcohol and NH4OH as the secondary carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. These carbons exhibited remarkable CO2 adsorption capacities and CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4 selectivities. The N-decoration in these carbons resulted in excellent activity for the oxygen reduction reaction. Samples NC900 and NC1000 having moderate N contents, high surface areas, and large numbers of mesopores favored the four-electron reduction pathway, while sample NC800 having a high N content, a moderate surface area, and a large number of micropores favored the two-electron reduction process.