C60-Adsorbed Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes as Metal-Free, pH-Universal, and Multifunctional Catalysts for Oxygen Reduction, Oxygen Evolution, and Hydrogen Evolution

Rui Gao; Quanbin Dai; Feng Du; Dongpeng Yan; Liming Dai

doi:10.1021/jacs.9b05006

C₆₀-Adsorbed Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes as Metal-Free, pH-Universal, and Multifunctional Catalysts for Oxygen Reduction, Oxygen Evolution, and Hydrogen Evolution

J Am Chem Soc. 2019 Jul 24;141(29):11658-11666. doi: 10.1021/jacs.9b05006. Epub 2019 Jul 9.

Authors

Rui Gao^{1

2}, Quanbin Dai¹, Feng Du¹, Dongpeng Yan², Liming Dai¹

Affiliations

¹ Center of Advanced Science and Engineering for Carbon (Case4Carbon), Department of Macromolecular Sciences and Engineering , Case Western Reserve University , Cleveland , Ohio 44106 , United States.
² Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, College of Chemistry , Beijing Normal University , Beijing 100875 , China.

PMID: 31241328
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b05006

Abstract

Buckminsterfullerene (C₆₀) was adsorbed onto single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as an electron-acceptor to induce intermolecular charge-transfer with the SWCNTs, leading to a class of new metal-free C₆₀-SWCNT electrocatalysts. For the first time, these newly developed C₆₀-SWCNTs were demonstrated to act as trifunctional metal-free catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) over a wide range of pH values, from acid to alkaline, with even higher electrocatalytic activities and better long-term stabilities than those of commercial Pt and RuO₂ counterparts. Thus, the adsorption-induced intermolecular charge-transfer with the C₆₀ electron-acceptor can provide a general approach to high-performance, metal-free, pH-universal carbon-based trifunctional metal-free electrocatalysts for water-splitting and beyond.