Tunable active-sites of Co- nanoparticles encapsulated in carbon nanofiber as high performance bifunctional OER/ORR electrocatalyst

Huan He; Yongxin Lei; Song Liu; Kunyapat Thummavichai; Yanqiu Zhu; Nannan Wang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.10.004

Tunable active-sites of Co- nanoparticles encapsulated in carbon nanofiber as high performance bifunctional OER/ORR electrocatalyst

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Jan 15;630(Pt A):140-149. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.10.004. Epub 2022 Oct 8.

Authors

Huan He¹, Yongxin Lei², Song Liu², Kunyapat Thummavichai³, Yanqiu Zhu⁴, Nannan Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Structural Safety of Ministry of Education, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Engineering Safety, School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China; Guangxi Institute Fullerene Technology (GIFT), Key Laboratory of New Processing Technology for Nonferrous Metals and Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China.
² Guangxi Institute Fullerene Technology (GIFT), Key Laboratory of New Processing Technology for Nonferrous Metals and Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China.
³ College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QF, UK; Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, NE1 8ST, UK.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Structural Safety of Ministry of Education, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Engineering Safety, School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China; Guangxi Institute Fullerene Technology (GIFT), Key Laboratory of New Processing Technology for Nonferrous Metals and Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China; College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QF, UK.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Structural Safety of Ministry of Education, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Disaster Prevention and Engineering Safety, School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China; Guangxi Institute Fullerene Technology (GIFT), Key Laboratory of New Processing Technology for Nonferrous Metals and Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China. Electronic address: wangnannan@gxu.edu.cn.

PMID: 36240688
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.10.004

Abstract

The development of low-cost electrocatalysts with high oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance is crucial for devices used to convert and store hydrogen energy. Research on OER and ORR catalysts has attracted a lot of attention. The limited single-functional catalysts can be expanded as bi-functional catalysts to meet the extra requirement of preparing high-performance catalysts. In this study, we prepared Co-ZIF/CNF in which carbon nanofibers uniformly encapsulated Co- nanoparticles by electrospinning and simple pyrolysis. Co-ZIF/CNF contains both CoO_x and Co-N_y active sites, showing bifunctional activity for OER and ORR. The optimized catalyst Co-ZIF_1.5/10CNF₂ has a low OER overpotential of 390 mV, an onset potential of 0.93 V and a half-wave potential of 0.85 V of ORR, exhibiting an outstanding OER and ORR catalytic performance. The catalyst retained 87.53 % of its current after 12 h, showing great stability. This paper provides a new strategy for designing and preparing OER and ORR bifunctional catalysts.

Keywords: Bifunctional electrocatalyst; Carbon nanofibers; Co-ZIF; OER; ORR.