Promising nature-based nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanomaterial derived from borassus flabellifer male inflorescence as superior metal-free electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction

In this present study, novel hierarchical nitrogen-doped porous carbon for use as a metal-free oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalyst is derived from borassus flabellifer male inflorescences by calcining at 1000 °C in an inert atmosphere using metal hydroxides as activating agent and melamine as nitrogen doping agent. The BET surface areas of the lithium-ion (Li-ion), potassium-ion (K-ion) and calcium-ion (Ca-ion) activated carbon are observed to be 824.02, 810.88 and 602.88 m2 g-1 respectively. Another interesting fact is that the total surface energy calculated by wicking method (73.2 mJ/m2), is found to be higher for Li-ion activated carbons. Among the prepared nitrogen-doped porous carbon, Li-ion activated system, showed an outstanding performance in ORR reaction in alkaline medium, thanks to its high surface area and notable surface activity. An incontrovertible of note that ORR half-wave potential of Li-ion activated nitrogen-doped carbon (0.90 V) is relatively higher in comparison to the commercial 20 wt % Pt/C catalyst (0.86 V). Inspite of overwhelming performance, the ORR reaction followed the preferred 4- electron transfer mechanism involving in the direct reduction pathway in all activated carbons. The ORR performance is also noticeably better and comparable to the best results in the literature based on biomass derived carbon catalysts.