Issue 35, 2018

Cobalt and nitrogen-codoped ordered mesoporous carbon as highly efficient bifunctional catalysts for oxygen reduction and hydrogen evolution reactions

Abstract

The high cost and limited reserves of noble metals such as Pt have hampered their large-scale commercial applications in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we developed a simple silica template approach to form porous carbons codoped with nitrogen and cobalt as highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for the ORR and HER. The resulting porous carbons exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity for the ORR in alkaline media, which compares favorably with that of commercial Pt/C (20 wt%), and had superior durability and excellent methanol tolerance. The porous carbons also showed superior performance for the HER, with a low onset potential of −0.04 V, a Tafel slope of 49 mV dec−1, an overpotential of −0.106 V at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, and remarkable durability. These results demonstrate that the Co, N-doped carbons are promising bifunctional catalysts for fuel cell applications.

Graphical abstract: Cobalt and nitrogen-codoped ordered mesoporous carbon as highly efficient bifunctional catalysts for oxygen reduction and hydrogen evolution reactions

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 Jul 2018
Accepted
02 Aug 2018
First published
06 Aug 2018

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018,6, 17067-17074

Author version available

Cobalt and nitrogen-codoped ordered mesoporous carbon as highly efficient bifunctional catalysts for oxygen reduction and hydrogen evolution reactions

X. Liu, W. Li and S. Zou, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018, 6, 17067 DOI: 10.1039/C8TA06864J

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