Issue 22, 2017

Enhancement of nitrogen and sulfur co-doping on the electrocatalytic properties of carbon nanotubes for VO2+/VO2+ redox reaction

Abstract

Heteroatom doping on the surface of an electrode and catalyst can impact the surface and electronic properties. Herein, nitrogen and sulfur co-doped multi-walled carbon nanotubes (denoted as MWCNTs-NS) prepared via a pyrolysis method, in which thiourea served as both nitrogen and sulfur sources, were investigated as an electrocatalyst for the VO2+/VO2+ redox couple in vanadium redox flow battery. It was revealed that the pyrolysis process had no effect on the microstructure of MWCNTs. The VO2+/VO2+ redox reaction on MWCNTs-NS exhibited higher electrochemical kinetics when compared with that on pristine and nitrogen-doped MWCNTs. The nitrogen and sulfur co-doping for MWCNTs can decrease the charge transfer resistance of the VO2+/VO2+ redox reaction. Static cells using graphite felt modified by the MWCNTs samples were employed to evaluate their electrocatalytic properties for the VO2+/VO2+ reaction. The cell using the MWCNTs-NS electrocatalyst showed the smallest electrochemical polarization, resulting in a larger energy density and energy efficiency. The results indicate that MWCNTs-NS is a novel efficient catalyst for the VO2+/VO2+ redox reaction with excellent electrocatalytic properties.

Graphical abstract: Enhancement of nitrogen and sulfur co-doping on the electrocatalytic properties of carbon nanotubes for VO2+/VO2+ redox reaction

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 dec 2016
Accepted
07 feb 2017
First published
24 feb 2017
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2017,7, 13184-13190

Enhancement of nitrogen and sulfur co-doping on the electrocatalytic properties of carbon nanotubes for VO2+/VO2+ redox reaction

C. Li, B. Xie, J. Chen, J. He and Z. He, RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 13184 DOI: 10.1039/C6RA27734A

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