Synthesis of nitrogen-doped MnO/carbon network as an advanced catalyst for direct hydrazine fuel cells

Abstract

Designing a novel, highly efficient earth-abundant, and low cost electrocatalyst is a key for direct hydrazine fuel cell (DHFC) applications. Electrocatalyst plays an eminent role in enhancing the performance of DHFC, a promising tool to produce electricity without CO2 emission. Herein, we report a salt-template based synthesis of manganese oxide (MnO) nanoparticles integrated nitrogen-doped network-like carbon (MnO/N-C) nanocomposites and demonstrated their catalytic performance towards electrochemical oxidation of hydrazine for the first time. The MnO nanoparticles (3.7 nm size) are not only uniformly distributed onto the entire N-C composite surface, but also having enormous porous structure with large active surface area of 885 m2 g−1 and external surface area of 678 m2 g−1, which plays a majestic role in hydrazine oxidation reaction. Interestingly, MnO/N-C nanocomposite displays significantly higher electrocatalytic performance towards hydrazine oxidation than the N-C and MnO catalysts. In addition, the electrocatalytic performance of MnO/N-C nanocomposite appeared even after 3000 cycles, demonstrating an exceptional stability of MnO/N-C catalyst. The improved electrocatalytic efficiency of MnO/N-C nanocomposite originates from the synergetic physicochemical properties of MnO and N-C, which offers large active sites for the catalytic reactions and rapidly facilitates electrolyte diffusion for DHFC applications.