Development of 1D‐Metalloid‐Induced Highly Porous Carbon Nanofiber Conjugated with PEDOT Polymer Through Concurrent Selenization of ZIF‐67 for Energy Storage and Green H₂ Production

Abstract

Manufacturing high‐performance and cost‐affordable non‐metallic, electroactive 1D carbon material for energy storage and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is of foremost importance to respond positively to the impending energy crisis. Porous N‐doped carbon nanofiber (PNCNF) is successfully synthesized by electrospinning, using selenium nanoparticles as a sacrificial template (where Se is reutilized for ZIF‐67 selenization as a bi‐process, and the surface of PNCNF is modified with poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) (PNCNT/PEDOT) by electropolymerization. The prepared materials are found ideal for energy storage (supercapacitor) and electrocatalysis (HER). The bi‐functional material has shown excellent energy storage capability with the specific capacitance (CS) of 230 F g−1 (PNCNF) and 395 F g−1 (PNCNF/PEDOT), and the symmetric supercapacitor device, PNCNF/PEDOT//PEDOT/PNCNF, exhibits 32.4 Wh kg−1 energy density at 14400 W kg−1 power density with 96.6% Coulombic efficiency and 106% CS at the end of 5000 charge–discharge cycles. The rate capability of the symmetric supercapacitor cell of PNCNF/PEDOT is 51% for the current density increase from 1 to 8 A g−1, while that of PNCNF is a meager 29% only. Electrocatalytic HER at the PNCNF electrode is achieved with an overpotential of 281 mV@10 mA cm−2 relative to the Pt/C electrode and a low Tafel slop value of 96 mV dec−1.