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Updated: Jan 30, 2026

Preparation of Biomass-based Mesoporous Carbon with Higher Nitrogen-/Oxygen-chelating Adsorption for CuII Through Microwave Pre-Pyrolysis
Published on: February 12, 2019
Bio-inspired chitosan-heme-vitamin B12-derived Fe-Co bimetallic-doped mesoporous carbons for efficiently
Zifan Ma1, Longdi Xu, Luyao Liu
1School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, 500 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai, 200241, P.R. China. agkong@chem.ecnu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
A bio-inspired bimetallic Fe- and Co-doped nitrogen-carbon material (Fe-Co-N-C) was synthesized using chitosan and porphyrin-like heme and vitamin B12 precursors. Anionic heme with Fe-N4 moieties and vitamin B12 with Co-N4 moieties were grafted onto the surface of acidic chitosan polymers through interactions with cationic -NH3+, and these polymers were coated onto nano-sized silica spheres to form the composite precursors. The optimised thermolysis of these composites yielded mesoporous carbons with abundant surface Fe-Nx and Co-Nx sites. The as-prepared Fe-Co-N-Cs catalyzed the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in both alkaline and acidic conditions. It not only provided a low-cost bio-inspired synthesis for bimetal-doped carbons using biologics with the definitive molecular structure but also the as-prepared mesoporous Fe-Co-N-Cs represented as the possible NPMC candidates for replacing Pt-based electrocatalysts in fuel cells.
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