Nitrogen-doped truncated carbon nanotubes inserted into nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets with a sandwich structure: a highly efficient metal-free catalyst for the HER

Abstract

A new promising metal-free catalyst (N-TCNT@NGS), with a sandwich structure of 1-dimensional nitrogen-doped truncated carbon nanotubes inserted between 2-dimensional nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets, was synthesized by a facile and green hydrothermal method. Due to the unique structure, multipath charge and mass transport, N-TCNT@NGS exhibits incredible electrocatalytic ability and robust durability for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) (Tafel slope: 50 mV dec⁻¹, onset overpotential: −16 mV, operating overpotential at 10 mA cm⁻²: −62 mV).