Tunable engineering hollow carbon nanomaterial served as an excellent catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction and hydrogen evolution reaction

• Published in: Journal of colloid and interface science Vol. 544; pp. 178 - 187
• Main Authors: Song, Kaixu, Shi, Bo, Song, Dandan, Zhang, Qiaoling, He, Xingquan, Dou, Zhiyu, Hu, Xiaoli, Cui, Lili
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 15.05.2019
• Subjects: carbon; catalysts; chemical composition; electrochemistry; engineering; Hollow nanoparticles; Hydrogen evolution reaction; hydrogen production; iron; Iron carbide; methanol; N-doping; nanomaterials; Oxygen reduction reaction; pyrolysis; surface area; synergism; temperature; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy; Hydrogen evolution reaction; Hollow nanoparticles; Iron carbide; N-doping; Oxygen reduction reaction
• ISSN: 0021-9797; 1095-7103; 1095-7103
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.02.085

[Display omitted] Fe and N functionalized hollow carbon spheres (Fe/N-HCS) with hierarchically porous structure are constructed. Remarkably, it is discovered that the pyrolysis temperature effects the chemical composition intensively. At 800 °C, only graphitic-N and oxidized-N are formed for all as-prepared samples. The surface area and pores can be precisely tuned, the surface area of all Fe/N-HCS samples is more than 500  m2 g−1 benefiting from the porous hollow structure. Thus, the optimized Fe/N-HCS exhibits excellent oxygen reduction reaction performance in term of onset potential (1.00 V vs. RHE), half-wave potential (0.87 V vs. RHE), good stability as well as methanol tolerance for oxygen reduction reaction, even surpassing the Pt in alkaline condition and more competitive in acidic condition; Furthermore, the optimized Fe/N-HCS displays better hydrogen evolution reaction activity in acidic condition with onset overpotential of 40 mV and overpotential to deliver 10 mA cm−2 at 170 mV, indicating better active. It is found that Fe/N-HCS improve the hydrogen evolution reaction activity after electrodeposition trace quantity of Pt, which shows 170 mV of overpotential to deliver 100 mA cm−2. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy result indicates the loading of Pt is roughly 0.11 at%, thus, the improved performance is basically due to the synergistic effect between Pt and Fe/N-HCS.