Carbon nanotube-encapsulated cobalt for oxygen reduction: integration of space confinement and N-doping

Qichen Wang; Ke Ye; Liang Xu; Wei Hu; Yongpeng Lei; Yi Zhang; Yin Chen; Kechao Zhou; Jun Jiang; Jean M. Basset; Dingsheng Wang; Yadong Li

doi:10.1039/C9CC08439H

Carbon nanotube-encapsulated cobalt for oxygen reduction: integration of space confinement and N-doping†

Qichen Wang,‡^ab Ke Ye,‡^c Liang Xu,

‡^d Wei Hu,^e Yongpeng Lei,

*^ab Yi Zhang,

^b Yin Chen,^b Kechao Zhou,^a Jun Jiang,

^c Jean M. Basset,

^f Dingsheng Wang

^g and Yadong Li

^g

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha, P. R. China

^b Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Power Sources, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, P. R. China
E-mail: lypkd@163.com, leiyongpeng@csu.edu.cn

^c Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

^d Energy Materials Computing Center, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Nanchang 330013, China

^e College of Basic Education, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China

^f KAUST Catalysis Center, Physical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia

^g Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Abstract

We report carbon nanotube-encapsulated cobalt as an efficient oxygen reduction electrocatalyst (onset potential of 0.94 V and half-potential of 0.84 V). Calculation results firstly reveal that Co protected by graphitic-N-doped carbon holds more negative charge (−1.22 eV) and has an energy barrier (0.56 eV) lower than that of pyridinic-N-doped carbon (−1.11 eV; 0.78 eV), which is responsible for the ORR activity. The corresponding Zn–air batteries deliver an excellent gravimetric energy density of 837 W h kg⁻¹.

Chemical Communications

Carbon nanotube-encapsulated cobalt for oxygen reduction: integration of space confinement and N-doping†

Abstract

Supplementary files

Article information

Download Citation

Permissions

Carbon nanotube-encapsulated cobalt for oxygen reduction: integration of space confinement and N-doping

Social activity

Search articles by author

Spotlight

Advertisements