Electrospun nitrogen-doped carbon nanofibers for electrocatalysis

Abstract

Electrospinning technology has attracted wide attention in the field of electrocatalysis due to its easy operation, environmental friendliness and large-scale production capacity. Electrospun nitrogen-doped carbon fibers have the advantages of uniform size, controllable defects, orderly arrangement, and mass production, which benefits their practical applications in electrocatalysis. Nitrogen doping can activate the adjacent carbon atoms. The graphitic nitrogen can donate electron to the π-conjugated carbon system and the pyridinic nitrogen has electron-attracting effect on the adjacent carbon atom, thereby achieving improved electrocatalytic performance. However, the catalytic activity of pure nitrogen-doped carbon fibers is insufficient for practical applications. Therefore, researchers have conducted extensive investigations on optimizing the structure and composition of carbon fibers. In this review, electrospun N-doped carbon nanofibers with various architectures are summarized, and the advantages of heteroatom doping and fiber structure are grasped. The application progresses of nitrogen doped carbon nanofibers in the fields of oxygen and carbon dioxide reduction reaction, hydrogen and oxygen evolution reaction are reviewed. Finally, the future development of electrospun carbon nanofiber catalysts is prospected.