Issue 10, 2023

Generation of covalent organic framework-derived porous N-doped carbon nanosheets for highly efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Hydrogen production by electrochemical water splitting is a promising green and renewable hydrogen energy route due to zero pollution, high purity, and abundant water resources. In this context, completely metal-free electrocatalysis is an emerging research area for clean energy production due to its low cost, eco-friendliness, high stability, and high resistance to a wide pH range. However, only a few electrocatalysts like g-C3N4, CNTs, and heteroatom-doped graphene have been reported to date that exhibit robust metal-free hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performances. Herein, we have developed a triazine-containing polyimide-based covalent organic framework (TP-COF) by a one-pot condensation reaction between pyromellitic dianhydride and melamine under reflux condensation. The polymeric framework exhibited a unique two-dimensional nanosheet morphology with a moderate surface area of 312.6 m2 g−1 and abundant pores of 1.8 nm. The synthesized TP-COF displayed a reasonable electrocatalytic HER performance with excellent long-term stability. Furthermore, the HER performance was further enhanced by pyrolyzing the TP-COF at 700 °C to prepare the N-doped porous carbon nanosheet, TP-COF-C700. The high surface area (672.2 m2 g−1) with uniform mesopores (∼1.98 nm), amplified electrical conductivity of TP-COF-C700, and presence of enriching N as the dopants for improving active sites made the TP-COF-C700 a promising HER electrocatalyst. The TP-COF-C700 showed the HER overpotential of 94 mV@10 mA cm−2 current density with 60 h long-range durability and 98% faradaic efficiency for hydrogen evolution. This report highlights a unique paradigm for preparing highly efficient metal-free electrocatalysts for HER.

Graphical abstract: Generation of covalent organic framework-derived porous N-doped carbon nanosheets for highly efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Associated articles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 iyl 2023
Accepted
06 sen 2023
First published
06 sen 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Energy Adv., 2023,2, 1713-1723

Generation of covalent organic framework-derived porous N-doped carbon nanosheets for highly efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

S. Halder, A. K. Pradhan, S. Khan and C. Chakraborty, Energy Adv., 2023, 2, 1713 DOI: 10.1039/D3YA00325F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, 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 commercial 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