Premium
Nitrogen‐ and Phosphorus‐Doped Nanoporous Graphene/Graphitic Carbon Nitride Hybrids as Efficient Electrocatalysts for Hydrogen Evolution
Author(s) -
Shinde Sambhaji S.,
Sami Abdul,
Lee JungHo
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.201500701
Subject(s) - tafel equation , overpotential , electrocatalyst , exchange current density , graphitic carbon nitride , nanoporous , graphene , materials science , catalysis , chemical engineering , nitride , inorganic chemistry , hydrogen production , nanotechnology , chemistry , electrochemistry , organic chemistry , electrode , photocatalysis , layer (electronics) , engineering
Abstract The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is one of the key steps in clean and efficient energy conversion techniques; however, the mass production of current HER devices is hampered by several shortcomings, which include kinetically sluggish processes, stability, and the use of expensive catalysts. In this work we report the facile synthesis of metal‐free hybrids by integrating graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C 3 N 4 ) with nitrogen‐ and phosphorus‐doped nanoporous graphene sheets. A phosphorus‐doped metal‐free hybrid electrocatalyst (g‐C 3 N 4 @P‐pGr) displayed excellent HER performance with an overpotential of −0.34 V, high exchange current density of 3.33×10 −6 A cm −2 , onset potential of 0.076 V, Tafel slope of 90 mV dec −1 , Gibbs free energy of −0.16 eV, and long‐term durability comparable to that of well‐developed metal catalysts. Tafel slope analysis suggests that the Volmer–Tafel mechanism is the most favorable HER kinetics for these metal‐free hybrids. The extraordinary HER performance stems from a strong synergistic effect between the highly exposed active sites generated by the introduction of in‐plane pores into graphene and the coupling of g‐C 3 N 4 .