Highly Curved Nanostructure‐Coated Co, N‐Doped Carbon Materials for Oxygen Electrocatalysis

Abstract

Nitrogen-doped graphene could catalyze the electrochemical reduction and evolution of oxygen, but unfortunately suffers from sluggish catalytic kinetics. Herein, for the first time, we report an onion-like carbon coated Co, N-doped carbon (OLC/Co-N-C) material, which possesses multilayers of highly curved nanostructures that form mesoporous architectures. These unique nanospheres are produced when surfactant micelles are introduced to synthesis precursors. Owing to the combined electronic effect and nanostructuring effect, our OLC/Co-N-C materials exhibit high bifunctional oxygen reduction/evolution reaction (ORR/OER) activity, showing a promising application in rechargeable Zn-air batteries. Experimental results are rationalized by theoretical calculations, showing that the curvature of graphitic carbon plays a vital role in promoting activities of meta-carbon atoms near graphitic N and ortho/meta carbon atoms close to pyridinic N.

Single‐Atom Anchored Curved Carbon Surface for Efficient CO2 Electro‐Reduction with Nearly 100% CO Selectivity and Industrially‐Relevant Current Density

“…And the high-curvature surface can offer more sites to anchor single atoms with stronger intrinsic interaction. [20] The electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) curves of Ni@CC-M and Ni@CC-D, and Ni@CC-T show the distinct signal with a g-value of ≈2.15 (Figure S15, Supporting Information), indicating the abundant unpaired electron in the 3d orbital of Ni, [21] which is well consistent with the results.…”

Highly efficient bifunctional nanofiber catalysts with 3D hierarchical nanostructures as building blocks for rechargeable Zn–air batteries

“…3c, the peaks of Co/PCNFs and CoCNTs/PCNFs in the low displacement region are derived from the characteristic peaks of cobalt (E g , F 2g and A 1g ). 36 The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurement was conducted to investigate the components and valence states of the samples. The survey spectrum revealed the presence of carbon, nitrogen, cobalt and oxygen elements (Fig.…”

“…3c, the peaks of Co/PCNFs and CoCNTs/PCNFs in the low displacement region are derived from the characteristic peaks of cobalt (E g , F 2g and A 1g ). 36…”

Sustainable zinc–air battery chemistry: advances, challenges and prospects

“…For instance, bent N-doped C 60 possessed a lower intermediate adsorption barrier than the planar graphene. 102 Wang et al synthesized Co–N 4 moieties supported on a highly wrinkled N-doped graphene support (Co SA-NDG) as a bifunctional oxygen catalyst with a low Δ E of 0.71 V (Fig. 8a).…”