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Saha D, Yu HJ, Wang J, Prateek, Chen X, Tang C, Senger C, Pagaduan JN, Katsumata R, Carter KR, Zhou G, Bai P, Wu N, Watkins JJ. Mesoporous Single Atom-Cluster Fe-N/C Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysts Synthesized with Bottlebrush Block Copolymer-Templated Rapid Thermal Annealing. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES 2024; 16:13729-13744. [PMID: 38457643 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c18693] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/10/2024]
Abstract
Current electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are either expensive (such as IrO2, RuO2) or/and exhibit high overpotential as well as sluggish kinetics. This article reports mesoporous earth-abundant iron (Fe)-nitrogen (N) doped carbon electrocatalysts with iron clusters and closely surrounding Fe-N4 active sites. Unique to this work is that the mechanically stable mesoporous carbon-matrix structure (79 nm in pore size) with well-dispersed nitrogen-coordinated Fe single atom-cluster is synthesized via rapid thermal annealing (RTA) within only minutes using a self-assembled bottlebrush block copolymer (BBCP) melamine-formaldehyde resin composite template. The resulting porous structure and domain size can be tuned with the degree of polymerization of the BBCP backbone, which increases the electrochemically active surface area and improves electron transfer and mass transport for an effective OER process. The optimized electrocatalyst shows a required potential of 1.48 V (versus RHE) to obtain the current density of 10 mA/cm2 in 1 M KOH aqueous electrolyte and a small Tafel slope of 55 mV/decade at a given overpotential of 250 mV, which is significantly lower than recently reported earth-abundant electrocatalysts. Importantly, the Fe single-atom nitrogen coordination environment facilitates the surface reconstruction into a highly active oxyhydroxide under OER conditions, as revealed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and in situ Raman spectroscopy, while the atomic clusters boost the single atoms reactive sites to prevent demetalation during the OER process. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations support that the iron nitrogen environment and reconstructed oxyhydroxides are electrocatalytically active sites as the kinetics barrier is largely reduced. This work has opened a new avenue for simple, rapid synthesis of inexpensive, earth-abundant, tailorable, mechanically stable, mesoporous carbon-coordinated single-atom electrocatalysts that can be used for renewable energy production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dipankar Saha
- Conte Center for Polymer Research, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - Hsin-Jung Yu
- Conte Center for Polymer Research, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - Jiacheng Wang
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - Prateek
- Conte Center for Polymer Research, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - Xiaobo Chen
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Binghamton University, State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, New York 13850, United States
| | - Chaoyun Tang
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - Claire Senger
- Conte Center for Polymer Research, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - James Nicolas Pagaduan
- Conte Center for Polymer Research, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - Reika Katsumata
- Conte Center for Polymer Research, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - Kenneth R Carter
- Conte Center for Polymer Research, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - Guangwen Zhou
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Binghamton University, State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, New York 13850, United States
| | - Peng Bai
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - Nianqiang Wu
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - James J Watkins
- Conte Center for Polymer Research, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
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Di Y, Zhao R, Xiang J, Meng X, Wu F, Li J. Effect of urea and ammonium fluoride ratio on CuCo 2S 4/NF as a highly efficient HER catalyst. RSC Adv 2023; 13:28713-28728. [PMID: 37790099 PMCID: PMC10542851 DOI: 10.1039/d3ra05496a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2023] [Accepted: 09/25/2023] [Indexed: 10/05/2023] Open
Abstract
CuCo2S4 as a spinel-structured transition metal sulfide is a highly effective HER catalyst due to its excellent endurance, low overpotential, and low Tafel slope. In this work, the CuCo2S4/Ni foam (NF) catalysts with various morphologies have been successfully synthesized by controlling the ratio of urea and ammonium fluoride (NH4F) based on the hydrothermal method. Urea and NH4F ratio exhibit a great influence on the microstructure and the HER catalytic performance of CuCo2S4/NF catalysts is discussed in detail.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yifei Di
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Liaoning University of Technology Jinzhou 121001 China +86-416-4199650 +86-416-4199650
| | - Rongda Zhao
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Liaoning University of Technology Jinzhou 121001 China +86-416-4199650 +86-416-4199650
| | - Jun Xiang
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Liaoning University of Technology Jinzhou 121001 China +86-416-4199650 +86-416-4199650
| | - Xiangsen Meng
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Liaoning University of Technology Jinzhou 121001 China +86-416-4199650 +86-416-4199650
| | - Fufa Wu
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Liaoning University of Technology Jinzhou 121001 China +86-416-4199650 +86-416-4199650
| | - Jing Li
- Foshan Graduate School of Innovation, Northeastern University Foshan 528311 China
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Gebreslase GA, Martínez-Huerta MV, Sebastián D, Lázaro MJ. Transformation of CoFe 2O 4 spinel structure into active and robust CoFe alloy/N-doped carbon electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction. J Colloid Interface Sci 2022; 625:70-82. [PMID: 35714410 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.06.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2022] [Revised: 05/24/2022] [Accepted: 06/02/2022] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Electrochemical water splitting is an environmentally benign technology employed for H2 production; however, it is critically hampered by the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the positive electrode. In this work, nitrogen-doped carbon-coated CoFe electrocatalysts were synthesized via a three-step route comprising (1) hydrothermal reaction, (2) in-situ polymerization of dopamine and (3) carbonization. The effect of carbonized polydopamine on the overall physicochemical properties and electrochemical activity of CoFe catalysts was systematically studied. By controlling and optimizing the ratio of CoFe2O4 and dopamine contents, a transformation of the CoFe2O4 structure to CoFe alloy was observed. It was found that CoFe/NC30% (prepared with 30% dopamine) exhibits an excellent catalytic activity towards OER. A small overpotential of 340 mV was required to generate a current density of 10 mA cm-2 in a 1.0 M KOH electrolyte. More importantly, the CoFe/NC30% catalyst reflected exceptional durability for at least 24 h. This research sheds light on the development of affordable, highly efficient, and durable electrocatalysts for OER.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - David Sebastián
- Instituto de Carboquímica, CSIC. Miguel Luesma, Castán 4, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain
| | - María Jesús Lázaro
- Instituto de Carboquímica, CSIC. Miguel Luesma, Castán 4, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain.
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