Issue 40, 2017

Cobalt boride modified with N-doped carbon nanotubes as a high-performance bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst

Abstract

The development of reversible oxygen electrodes, able to drive both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), is still a great challenge. We describe a very efficient and stable bifunctional electrocatalytic system for reversible oxygen electrodes obtained by direct CVD growth of nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) on the surface of cobalt boride (CoB) nanoparticles. A detailed investigation of the crystalline structure and elemental distribution of CoB before and after NCNT growth reveals that the NCNTs grow on small CoB nanoparticles formed in the CVD process. The resultant CoB/NCNT system exhibited outstanding activity in catalyzing both the OER and the ORR in 0.1 M KOH with an overvoltage difference of only 0.73 V between the ORR at −1 mA cm−2 and the OER at +10 mA cm−2. The proposed CoB/NCNT catalyst showed stable performance during 50 h of OER stability assessment in 0.1 M KOH. Moreover, CoB/NCNT spray-coated on a gas diffusion layer as an air-breathing electrode proved its high durability during 170 galvanostatic charge–discharge (OER/ORR) test cycles (around 30 h) at ±10 mA cm−2 in 6 M KOH, making it an excellent bifunctional catalyst for potential Zn–air battery application.

Graphical abstract: Cobalt boride modified with N-doped carbon nanotubes as a high-performance bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
16 ذو القعدة 1438
Accepted
28 ذو الحجة 1438
First published
28 ذو الحجة 1438

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2017,5, 21122-21129

Cobalt boride modified with N-doped carbon nanotubes as a high-performance bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst

K. Elumeeva, J. Masa, D. Medina, E. Ventosa, S. Seisel, Y. U. Kayran, A. Genç, T. Bobrowski, P. Weide, J. Arbiol, M. Muhler and W. Schuhmann, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2017, 5, 21122 DOI: 10.1039/C7TA06995B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements