A lyophilized and thermal two step synthesis of CoFe alloy nanoparticles embedded in N-doped carbon nanosheets/carbon nanotubes for highly-efficient oxygen evolution reaction.

Title A lyophilized and thermal two step synthesis of CoFe alloy nanoparticles embedded in N-doped carbon nanosheets/carbon nanotubes for highly-efficient oxygen evolution reaction.
Authors Y. Liu; F. Li; H. Yang; J. Li; P. Ma; Y. Zhu; J. Ma
Journal ChemSusChem
DOI 10.1002/cssc.201800961
Abstract

There is a vital need to explore highly-efficient and stable nonprecious-metal catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) to reduce the overpotential and further improve the energy conversion efficiency. Herein, we report a unique and cost-effective lyophilized and thermal two step procedure to synthesize high-performance CoFe alloy nanoparticles embedded in N-doped carbon nanosheets interspersed with carbon nanotubes (CoFe-N-CN/CNTs) hybrid. The lyophilization step during catalysts preparation is beneficial to uniform the dispersion of carbon-like precursors and avoid the agglomeration of metal particles. Meanwhile, the inserted CNTs and doped N in this hybrid provide better electrical conductivity, more chemically active sites, improved mass transport capability and effective gas adsorption/release channels. And all these lead to a high specific surface area of 240.67 m2 g-1, favorable stability and remarkable OER activities with an overpotential of only 285 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm-2 and a Tafel slope of 51.09 mV dec-1 in 1.0 M KOH electrolyte, which is even superior to commercial IrO2 catalysts. The CoFe-N-CN/CNTs hybrid thus exhibits great potential as a highly efficient and earth-abundant anode OER electrocatalyst.

Citation Y. Liu; F. Li; H. Yang; J. Li; P. Ma; Y. Zhu; J. Ma.A lyophilized and thermal two step synthesis of CoFe alloy nanoparticles embedded in N-doped carbon nanosheets/carbon nanotubes for highly-efficient oxygen evolution reaction.. ChemSusChem. 2018. doi:10.1002/cssc.201800961

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