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Carbon nanotube@ZIF–derived Fe-N-doped carbon electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction and evolution reactions

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Abstract

Iron-nitrogen co-doped hierarchical porous carbon (Fe-N-HPC) was synthesized through the carbonization of carbon nanotube@ZIF composite. It was found that the porous carbon structure with uniformly distributed active N-doping and Fe-N sites was conduced to oxygen adsorption, electronics, and mass transfer. In addition, the integrated electroconductive multi-walled carbon nanotube skeleton loaded with the porous carbon boosted the density and stability of reactive sites. As a result, the prior catalyst exhibited a high-efficiency oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity with a half-wave potential of − 0.078 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) positive than the commercial Pt/C (− 0.092 V). For oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance, the potential was 0.732 V at the current density of 10 mA cm−2 compared with IrO2 (0.643 V). The presented strategy provided a method to design a bi-functional electrocatalyst with superior performance, prior stability, and favorable methanol tolerance.

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Funding

This project was supported by Shanghai Municipal Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 17ZR1432200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51671146), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. 2016117 and 20163003), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (0500229046).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Key Laboratory of D&A for Metal-Functional Materials, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tongji University, 4800 Caoan Road, Shanghai, 201804, China

    Juan Xiong, Jing Zhao, Zhen Xiang, Congling Li, Mengchen Wu, Xiao Wang, Yifan Pan, Wei Lu & Rui Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Advanced Civil Engineering Materials of Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai, 201804, China

    Rui Liu

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  1. Juan Xiong
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  2. Jing Zhao
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  4. Congling Li
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  6. Xiao Wang
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  8. Wei Lu
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Correspondence to Wei Lu or Rui Liu.

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Xiong, J., Zhao, J., Xiang, Z. et al. Carbon nanotube@ZIF–derived Fe-N-doped carbon electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction and evolution reactions. J Solid State Electrochem 23, 2225–2232 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-019-04317-2

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