Facile synthesis of nitrogen-doped unzipped carbon nanotubes and their electrochemical properties

Abstract

In this work, a novel material based on nitrogen-doped unzipped carbon nanotubes (N-UCNTs) was synthesized by one step of pyrolysis of oxidized unzipped carbon nanotubes (O-UCNTs), which were prepared from pristine multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) according to the modified Hummers' method. Meanwhile, the supercapacitance and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) behaviors of N-UCNTs were investigated in detail. The results demonstrate that N-UCNTs show excellent performances in the application in supercapacitors and ORR, which can be attributed to the high nitrogen level (6.65 at%), large surface area (215.8 m² g⁻¹) and good crystallinity of N-UCNTs. Therefore, it can be concluded that N-UCNTs provide a promising material candidate for the application in energy conversion and storage.