“…The Ni 3 N/MCNT-1 material was further analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) as shown in Figure b,c. The high-resolution N 1s XPS spectrum of Ni 3 N/MCNT-1 was fit into five peaks at 397.1, 397.8, 399.2, 400.1, and 402.8 eV, and they were assigned to pyridinic-N, pyrrolic-N, Ni–N in Ni 3 N, graphitic-N, and N–O, respectively. − The XPS spectrum of N-doped MCNT was similar to that of Ni 3 N/MCNT-1, only lacking the Ni–N and N–O peaks (Figure d). This confirms that nitrogen has been doped into Ni 3 N/MCNT after thermal ammonolysis of Ni(OH) 2 /MCNT nanocomposites.…”