A Three-Dimensionally Structured Electrocatalyst: Cobalt-Embedded Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes/Nitrogen-Doped Reduced Graphene Oxide Hybrid for Efficient Oxygen Reduction

Changting Wei; Hongjing Wang; Kamel Eid; Jeonghun Kim; Jung Ho Kim; Zeid Abdullah Alothman; Yusuke Yamauchi; Liang Wang

doi:10.1002/chem.201604113

A Three-Dimensionally Structured Electrocatalyst: Cobalt-Embedded Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes/Nitrogen-Doped Reduced Graphene Oxide Hybrid for Efficient Oxygen Reduction

Chemistry. 2017 Jan 12;23(3):637-643. doi: 10.1002/chem.201604113. Epub 2016 Dec 7.

Authors

Changting Wei^{1

2}, Hongjing Wang³, Kamel Eid^{1

2}, Jeonghun Kim⁴, Jung Ho Kim⁴, Zeid Abdullah Alothman⁵, Yusuke Yamauchi^{4

6}, Liang Wang³

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin, 130022, P. R. China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, P. R. China.
³ College of Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014, P. R. China.
⁴ Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong, Squires Way, North Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0044, Japan.

PMID: 27925302
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201604113

Abstract

To develop low-cost and efficient oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts, a novel hybrid comprising cobalt-embedded nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes and nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (Co-NCNT/NrGO-800) was simply prepared by pyrolysis. The combination of nanotubes and graphene, and the efficient doping with cobalt and nitrogen, greatly contribute to the excellent ORR performance. This optimized Co-NCNT/NrGO catalyst exhibits a positive onset potential of 0.91 V and a half-wave potential of 0.82 V, combined with a relatively low peroxide yield, better durability, and better methanol tolerance than commercially available Pt/C, which makes it a promising candidate as a low-cost and effective non-precious-metal ORR catalyst.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes; electrocatalysis; graphene; hybrid materials; oxygen reduction reaction; porous materials.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't