Enhanced electrocatalytic activity of nitrogen-doped olympicene/graphene hybrids for the oxygen reduction reaction

Abstract

Developing inexpensive and non-precious metal electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is among the major goals in fuel cells. Herein, by using density-functional theory calculations, we show that N-doped olympicene/graphene hybrids exhibit unexpectedly high ORR catalytic activity—even comparable to that of the Pt(111) surface. Both graphitic-type and pyridine-type N-doped olympicene/graphene hybrids are highly active for the ORR and have good CO tolerance. The formation of the second H₂O molecule is the rate-determining step for the ORR with the graphitic-type hybrid, whereas on the pyridine-type hybrid, it is the formation of OOH. Note that N-doped olympicene/graphene hybrid materials combine the high reactivity of olympicene and the high electrical conductivity of graphene, which allows them to be potentially used as low-cost and non-precious-metal ORR catalysts.