Recycling the Catalyst of Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization to Prepare a Cu, N Codoped Mesoporous Carbon Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction

Non-noble metal and nitrogen codoped carbon catalysts are considered as the alternative options for Pt-based materials for the cathodic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) has been frequently adopted to synthesize functional polymers. However, the catalysts of ATRP could form a side product after the reaction, and the catalysts are difficult to separate from the products. In this article, a novel method to synthesize copper-nitrogen-carbon (Cu-N-C) by recycling the catalyst of ATRP is reported. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN), obtained by ATRP, is used as a precursor of the carbon substrate. Cu-2,2′-dipyridyl (Cu-bpy), the catalyst of ATRP, is reserved as the Cu-N active site for the ORR. Owing to the reserved Cu-N source, Cu-N-C exhibits a greater ORR catalytic effect compared to N-C, with a 70 mV improvement of E1/2. Benefiting from the hard template of SiO2, Cu-N-C has a limiting current density of 5.3 mA cm-2. This finding offers a new strategy for the synthesis of ORR catalysts and also a new idea to recycle the ATRP catalyst, which is usually considered as a side product.