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Highly defective carbon nanotubes with improved electrochemical properties by introduction of mesoporous holes on the side walls

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Abstract

Highly defective carbon nanotubes (HD-CNTs) are fabricated by template carbonization of polydopamine nanofilm coated on mesoporous titanium nitride nanotube arrays. With introduction of mesoporous holes on the side walls from the template, HD-CNTs exhibit much improved electrochemical properties. An ideal Nernst behavior toward [Fe(CN)6]3−/4− redox couple was observed on the HD-CNTs, with a heterogeneous charge transfer rate constant k0 greater than 0.5 cm/s that is among the fastest kinetics of electrode materials. Sensitive determination of dopamine has been demonstrated in the presence of ascorbic acid and uric acid, with a linear range of 0.1–180 μM, a detection limit of 0.074 μM (S/N = 3) and a sensitivity of 555 µA mM−1 cm−2. The excellent electrochemical activity should be attributed to the large number of exposed edge planes on the carbon nanofilm, the free-standing highly conductive titanium nitride architecture that is beneficial for electron transfer, mesoporous morphology that promotes the mass transfer between the nanotubes, and effective ion-accessible surface area.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Key R&D Program of China (2020YFC1909702) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (U21A20317).

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  1. Mengting Yao and Yuanyuan Li have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The State Key Laboratory of Refractories and Metallurgy, Institute of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430081, China

    Mengting Yao, Yuanyuan Li, Yating Nie, Houqiang Chen, Jiao Wang & Rongsheng Chen

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Yao, M., Li, Y., Nie, Y. et al. Highly defective carbon nanotubes with improved electrochemical properties by introduction of mesoporous holes on the side walls. J Mater Sci 57, 20567–20579 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-022-07949-4

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