Abstract
The development of advanced electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction and evolution is of paramount significance to fuel cells, water splitting, and metal-air batteries. Heteroatom-doped carbon materials have exhibited great promise because of their excellent electrical conductivity, abundance, and superior durability. Rationally optimizing active sites of doped carbons can remarkably enhance their electrocatalytic performance. In this study, nitrogen and oxygen codoped carbon nanotubes were readily synthesized from the pyrolysis of polydopamine-carbon nanotube hybrids. Different electron microscopes, Raman spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were employed to survey the morphological and componential properties. The newly-obtained catalyst features high-quality nitrogen and oxygen species, favourable porous structures and excellent electric conductivity, and thus exhibits remarkably bifunctional oxygen electrode activity. This research further helps to advance the knowledge of polydopamine and its potential applications as efficient electrocatalysts to replace noble metals.
Highlights
Green and sustainable energy sources play a crucial role in addressing concerns about the global energy dilemma, pollution, and climate change [1,2,3]
The morphologies and nanostructures of the newly-obtained N, O-Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were firstly investigated by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
The kind of stacked networks formed by isolated CNTs can deposit onto the electrode surface with abundant intrinsic inner cavities and large pores between the CNTs, which are believed to be conducive to facile electrolyte and gas transport during the electrocatalytic processes
Summary
Green and sustainable energy sources play a crucial role in addressing concerns about the global energy dilemma, pollution, and climate change [1,2,3]. Regenerative energy techniques involving fuel cells, metal–air batteries, and electrocatalytic hydrogen production have attracted significant interest as energy storage and conversion devices [4,5], which usually involve cathodic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Both ORR and OER contain complicated multi-electron transfer processes, which would result in sluggish reaction kinetics and compromise the whole performance of the above energy devices. Electrocatalysts can drastically promote reaction rates and lower overpotentials These features make electrocatalysts indispensable components of energy devices [6,7].
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