A one-pot hydrothermal synthesis of sulfur and nitrogen doped carbon aerogels with enhanced electrocatalytic activity in the oxygen reduction reaction

A one-pot, hydrothermal synthesis of nitrogen and sulfur dual doped carbon aerogels is presented, derived from our previously published hydrothermal carbonization approach. Two co-monomers, S-(2-thienyl)-L-cysteine (TC) and 2-thienyl carboxaldehyde (TCA), were used for sulfur incorporation, giving rise to distinct morphologies and varying doping levels of sulfur. Nitrogen-doping levels of 5 wt% and sulfur-doping levels of 1 wt% (using TCA) to 4 wt% (using TC) were obtained. A secondary pyrolysis step was used to further tune the carbon aerogel conductivity and heteroatom binding states. By comparing solely nitrogen-doped with nitrogen- and sulfur-doped carbon aerogels, it was observed that the presence of…