Nitrogen doped carbon fibers derived from carbonization of electrospun polyacrylonitrile as efficient metal-free HER electrocatalyst

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy Vol. 45; no. 7; pp. 4035 - 4042
• Main Authors: Sun, Jiuxiao, Ge, Qizhong, Guo, Long, Yang, Zehui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 07.02.2020
• Subjects: Hydrogen evolution reaction; Metal-free electrocatalyst; Nitrogen doped carbon; Polyacrylonitrile; Hydrogen evolution reaction; Polyacrylonitrile; Nitrogen doped carbon; Metal-free electrocatalyst
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.11.204

Development of durable and efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is significantly important for forwarding the commercialization of water splitting technology. In this work, we report a facile synthesis of nitrogen doped carbon fibers derived from the carbonization of the electron-spun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) membrane at 800 °C (NCFs-800) as efficient and stable metal-free electrocatalyst for HER catalysis in both acidic and alkaline mediums. Ascribing to the homogenous nitrogen dopants in electrocatalyst, NCFs-800 requires only 114.3 mV and 198.6 mV vs. RHE to achieve current density of 10 mA cm−2 in 0.5 M H2SO4 and 1 M KOH electrolytes, respectively. Moreover, the HER activity is well maintained after 2000 potential cycles indicating that NCFs-800 possesses high durability in both acidic and alkaline conditions due to the fibrous structure with high corrosion resistance. Our study offers new strategy to synthesize stable and efficient metal-free electrocatalyst, which could be extended to other heteroatom doped carbon electrocatalyst. [Display omitted] •Nitrogen doped carbon fibers are derived from the carbonization of polyacrylonitrile.•NCFs-800 requires 114.3 mV to achieve 10 mA cm−2 in 0.5 M H2SO4.•Overpotential for achieving 10 mA cm−2 in 1 M KOH is 198.6 mV for NCFs.