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. 2019 Oct;15(43):e1902410.
doi: 10.1002/smll.201902410. Epub 2019 Aug 30.

Cu,N-Codoped Carbon Nanodisks with Biomimic Stomata-Like Interconnected Hierarchical Porous Topology as Efficient Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Tao Wang  1 , Rui Yang  1   2 , Naien Shi  1 , Jing Yang  2 , Hongyu Yan  1 , Junyi Wang  1 , Zhen Ding  1 , Wei Huang  1 , Qing Luo  1 , Yue Lin  3 , Jian Gao  1 , Min Han  2   4
Affiliations

Cu,N-Codoped Carbon Nanodisks with Biomimic Stomata-Like Interconnected Hierarchical Porous Topology as Efficient Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Tao Wang et al. Small. 2019 Oct.

Abstract

Metal,N-codoped carbon (M-N-C) nanostructures are promising electrocatalysts toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) or other gas-involved energy electrocatalysis. Further creating pores into M-N-C nanostructures can increase their surface area, fully expose the active sites, and improve mass transfer and electrocatalytic efficiency. Nonetheless, it remains a challenge to fabricate M-N-C nanomaterials with both well-defined morphology and hierarchical porous structures. Herein, high-quality 2D Cu-N-C nanodisks (NDs) with biomimic stomata-like interconnected hierarchical porous topology are synthesized via carbonization of Cu-tetrapyridylporphyrin (TPyP)-metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) precursors and followed by etching the carbonization product (Cu@Cu-N-C) along with re-annealing treatment. Such hierarchical porous Cu-N-C NDs possess high specific surface area (293 m2 g-1 ) and more exposed Cu single-atom sites, different from their counterparts (Cu@Cu-N-C) and pure N-C control catalysts. Electrochemical tests in alkaline media reveal that they can efficiently catalyze ORR with a half-wave potential of 0.85 V (vs reversible hydrogen electrode), comparable to Pt/C and outperforming Cu@Cu-N-C, N-C, Cu-TPyP-MOFs, and most other reported M-N-C catalysts. Moreover, their stability and methanol-tolerant capability exceed Pt/C. This work may shed some light on optimizing 2D M-N-C nanostructures through bio-inspired pore structure engineering, and accelerate their applications in fuel cells, artificial photosynthesis, or other advanced technological fields.

Keywords: 2D Cu-N-C nanodisks; electrocatalysis; interconnected hierarchical porous topology; metal-organic frameworks-derived biomimic nanostructures; oxygen reduction reaction.

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