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Updated: Jan 23, 2026

Synthesis and Functionalization of Nitrogen-doped Carbon Nanotube Cups with Gold Nanoparticles as Cork Stoppers
Published on: May 13, 2013
The integration of Mo2C-embedded nitrogen-doped carbon with Co encapsulated in nitrogen-doped graphene layers derived
Yue Wang1, Kaiyue Li2, Feng Yan2
1Key Laboratory of In-Fiber Integrated Optics, Ministry of Education and College of Science, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. chenyujin@hrbeu.edu.cn and College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China. zhuchunling@hrbeu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
High-performance multi-functional electrocatalysts are highly desirable for various energy storage and conversion devices. In this study, we report a one dimensional N-doped carbon nanostructure, containing Mo2C and Co nanoparticles encapsulated in nitrogen-doped graphene layers (Mo2C@NC/Co@NG) as a multi-functional electrocatalyst. The optimized Mo2C@NC/Co@NG exhibited high activities and stabilities towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The experimental results demonstrate that the high activities and stabilities of the multi-functional catalysts are ascribed to the synergistic effect between Mo2C, Co, and N dopants. Typically, the optimized Mo2C@NC/Co@NG catalyst delivered a HER current density of 10 mA cm-2 at a small overpotential of 142 mV. Furthermore, a rechargeable zinc-air battery with the optimized Mo2C@NC/Co@NG as OER and ORR bifunctional catalyst showed a high round-trip efficiency and robust cycling stability, superior to the battery assembled with the benchmarked mixture of Pt/C and IrO2 as the air electrode. This study provides a simple method to reasonably design and fabricate highly efficient and stable multi-functional catalysts for clean and sustainable energy storage and conversion devices.
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