Premium
Synergistic Effect of Nitrogen in Cobalt Nitride and Nitrogen‐Doped Hollow Carbon Spheres for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction
Author(s) -
Zhong Xing,
Liu Lin,
Jiang Yu,
Wang Xinde,
Wang Lei,
Zhuang Guilin,
Li Xiaonian,
Mei Donghai,
Wang Jianguo,
Su Dang Sheng
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
chemcatchem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1867-3899
pISSN - 1867-3880
DOI - 10.1002/cctc.201500195
Subject(s) - catalysis , cobalt , carbon fibers , oxygen reduction reaction , nitrogen , nitride , nanoparticle , carbon nitride , gibbs free energy , materials science , chemistry , inorganic chemistry , chemical engineering , adsorption , oxygen , transition metal , nanotechnology , electrochemistry , electrode , organic chemistry , layer (electronics) , photocatalysis , quantum mechanics , composite number , engineering , composite material , physics
The need for inexpensive and high‐activity oxygen‐reduction‐reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts has attracted considerable research interest over the past years. Herein, we report a novel hybrid that contains cobalt nitride/nitrogen‐rich hollow carbon spheres (Co x N/NHCS) as a high‐performance catalyst for ORR. The Co x N nanoparticles were uniformly dispersed and confined in the hollow NHCS shell. The performance of the resulting Co x N/NHCS hybrid was comparable with that of a commercial Pt/C at the same catalyst loading toward ORR, but the mass activity of the former was 5.7 times better than that of the latter. The nitrogen in both Co x N and NHCS, especially Co x N, could weaken the adsorption of reaction intermediates (O and OOH), which follows the favorable reaction pathway on Co x N/NHCS according to the DFT‐calculated Gibbs free‐energy diagrams. Our results demonstrated a new strategy for the design and development of inexpensive, nonprecious‐metal electrocatalysts for next‐generation fuels.