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Co9 S8 -Catalyzed Growth of Thin-Walled Graphite Microtubes for Robust, Efficient Overall Water Splitting
Mingrui Guo1, Yi Liu1, Shun Dong1
1School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, National Engineering Research Center for Colloidal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Co9 S8 crystals can catalyze the growth of thin-walled graphite microtubes (GMTs) through a catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) process using thiourea as the precursor. The growth of GMTs follows a tip-growth mechanism with tube diameters up to a few micrometer. The hollow interiors of the GMTs are filled with carbon nanotubes and wrinkled graphene layers, which form a unique nanotube/graphene-in-microtube structure. As-formed GMTs are N,S-codoped with lots of Co9 S8 nanoparticles encapsulated in their inner walls. These GMTs are room-temperature ferromagnets and can be loaded on Ni foams to work as binder-free electrocatalysts with low overpotential (310 mV at 50 mA cm-2 for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and 284 mV at 50 mA cm-2 for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)) and long-term durability (continuous work for 120 h without loss in performance). Our research proves that metal sulfides can catalyze the growth of graphite microtubes and as-formed GMTs may potentially be used as functional building blocks to construct new kinds of electrochemical devices for various energy-related applications.
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