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Updated: Sep 24, 2025
Synthesis of Metal Nanoparticles Supported on Carbon Nanotube with Doped Co and N Atoms and its Catalytic Applications in Hydrogen Production
Published on: December 6, 2021
Cobalt/nitrogen codoped carbon nanosheets derived from catkins as a high performance non-noble metal electrocatalyst
Luting Song1,2, Jinquan Chang1, Yanhong Ma1
1Nanofabrication Laboratory, CAS Key Laboratory for Nanosystems and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology Beijing 100190 P. R. China.
Abstract:
Novel energy devices which are capable of alleviating and/or solving the energy dilemma such as overall water splitting and fuel cells require the development of highly efficient catalysts, especially cheap high performance non-precious metal (NPM) catalysts. Here, we prepare highly efficient NPM catalysts of cobalt and nitrogen codoped carbon nanosheets (Co/N-CNSs) for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) using harmful environment-polluting waste of biomass catkins as carbon precursors via a mild mechanical exfoliation and chemical process which is facile, low-cost, environmentally friendly and up-scalable. Compared with a commercial platinum-based catalyst (commercial 20% Pt/C), the Co/N-CNS electrocatalysts show outstanding ORR activity, acceptable HER activity and long term stability with an onset potential of 0.92 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (vs. RHE) and a half-wave potential of 0.83 V vs. the RHE in alkaline electrolytes. The excellent performance is closely related to the presence of abundant CoN active sites. This work offers a novel and effective approach for preparing highly efficient ORR and HER NPM electrocatalysts from waste biomass materials.
