N-Doped porous carbons obtained from chitosan and spent coffee as electrocatalysts with tuneable oxygen reduction reaction selectivity for HO generation.

Nitrogen-containing porous carbons prepared by the pyrolysis of adequate biopolymer-based precursors have shown potential in several electrochemical energy-related applications. However, it is still of crucial interest to find the optimal precursors and process conditions which would allow the preparation of carbons with adequate porous structure as well as suitable nitrogen content and distribution of functional groups. In the present work we suggested a straightforward approach to prepare N-doped porous carbons by direct pyrolysis under nitrogen of chitosan : coffee blends of different compositions and using KOH for simultaneous surface activation.