Porous N, B co-doped carbon nanotubes as efficient metal-free electrocatalysts for ORR and Zn-air batteries
Porous N, B co-doped carbon nanotubes as efficient metal-free electrocatalysts for ORR and Zn-air batteries
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.cej.2021.130134
复制
发表时间：
2021-10
影响因子：
15.1
通讯作者：
P. Wei;Xiaogang Li;Zhi-wei He;Xueping Sun;Qirui Liang;Zhengyi Wang;Chun Fang;Qing Li;H. Yang;Jiantao Han;Yunhui Huang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
P. Wei;Xiaogang Li;Zhi-wei He;Xueping Sun;Qirui Liang;Zhengyi Wang;Chun Fang;Qing Li;H. Yang;Jiantao Han;Yunhui Huang
具有高活性、高稳定性和上级成本效率的氧还原反应（ORR）催化剂的灵活设计和构造对于金属-空气电池和燃料电池是必不可少的。中空碳纳米管（CNTs）具有优异的热稳定性、稳定的化学性质和高的比表面积，被认为是一种很有前途的电催化剂。本文提出了一种简便可控的固相法制备氮硼共掺杂碳纳米管（NBCNT）的新方法，该方法以管状聚吡咯（PPy）和四苯硼钠（（C6 H5）4 BNa）为原料，（C6 H5）4 BNa不仅作为B源，而且作为成孔剂，有助于调节氮的构型，暴露出更多的活性位。由于多孔一维中空结构和二元杂原子掺杂的协同效应，优化的NBCNT催化剂在酸性和碱性电解质中均表现出上级的ORR催化性能。此外，基于所制备的催化剂构建了锌-空气电池，其显示出高的工作电压（1.43 V）和峰值功率密度（173.93 mW cm-2），进一步证明了催化剂与商业Pt/C催化剂相当的电催化性能。这项工作揭示了一种用于各种能量转换和存储技术的高效和具有成本效益的无金属催化剂的新结构。
The flexible design and construction of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts with high activity, great stability, and superior cost efficiency are essential for metal-air batteries and fuel cells. Hollow carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are considered promising electrocatalysts owing to their outstanding thermal stability, robust chemical properties, and high specific surface area. Herein, a convenient and controllable solid-phase route is proposed for the preparation of porous nitrogen (N) and boron (B) co-doped carbon nanotubes (NBCNT) by using tubular polypyrrole (PPy) and sodium tetraphenylboron ((C6H5)4BNa), in which (C6H5)4BNa serves not only as a B source but also as a pore-forming agent that can help to regulate N configuration and expose more active sites. Due to the synergistic effects of porous one-dimensional hollow structure and the binary heteroatom doping, the optimized NBCNT catalyst demonstrates superior catalytic performance for ORR in both acidic and alkaline electrolytes. Moreover, Zn-air batteries are constructed based on the as-prepared catalysts, which reveal a high operating voltage (1.43 V) and peak power density (173.93 mW cm−2), further demonstrating a comparable electrocatalytic performance of the catalysts to commercial Pt/C catalyst. This work reveals a novel construction of high-efficiency and cost-effective metal-free catalysts for various energy conversion and storage technologies.