Development of Dual N, S‐Heteroatom Doped Hollow Carbon Spheres as an Alternative Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Alkaline Medium

Abstract

AbstractHollow heteroatom‐doped mesoporous carbons were found to be an efficient non‐noble metal catalyst to enhance the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells. Here, we use dopamine hydrochloride (DHC) and dibenzyl disulfide (DBS) as the nitrogen and sulfur precursors to infiltrate N and S into the HCS in a single‐step process. Dibenzyl disulfide is less explored in literature as a sulfur dopant. Due to its high sulfur content and high boiling point, dibenzyl disulfide acts as an excellent sulfur dopant and can withstand the carbonization process. Among them, NSMHCS‐0.2 obtained by adding 0.2 g of dibenzyl disulfide at 31 h intervals to the polydopamine (PDA) loaded silica leads to the ideal N, S dual hetero‐atom doping in NSMHCS. Notably, it has a high shell thickness (45 nm), high BET surface area (637 m2 g−1), high pyridinic nitrogen (13.54 %), and thiophene sulfur (89.8 %) concentration. Such property tuning paved the way to reach a high positive onset potential (0.86 V vs RHE) and a limiting current density of 3.64 mA cm−2 at 0.4 V vs RHE. Additionally, NSMHCS‐0.2 has shown superior methanol tolerance and strong electrochemical stability when compared to Pt/C 20 %.