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Cobalt oxide nanosheets anchored onto nitrogen‐doped carbon nanotubes as dual purpose electrodes for lithium‐ion batteries and oxygen evolution reaction
Author(s) -
Wu Jian,
Liu Yongqiang,
Geng Dongsheng,
Liu Hao,
Meng Xiangbo
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.3862
Subject(s) - overpotential , tafel equation , electrochemistry , materials science , carbon nanotube , catalysis , cobalt oxide , cobalt , lithium (medication) , chemical engineering , oxide , electrode , inorganic chemistry , oxygen evolution , energy storage , conductivity , nanotechnology , electrochemical energy conversion , chemistry , organic chemistry , metallurgy , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics , medicine , endocrinology , engineering
Summary Transition metal oxides (TMOs) have been extensively explored as promising electrode materials for electrochemical energy storage and catalysis. However, TMOs intrinsically have low electronic conductivity and suffer severe volume change during electrochemical cycling. In this study, we develop an effective strategy to enhance conductivity and buffer volume changes of TMOs, in which networked nitrogen‐doped carbon nanotubes (N‐CNTs) are incorporated into Co 3 O 4 nanosheets system. Based on the whole mass of Co 3 O 4 and N‐CNT, the composites can maintain a stable discharge capacity of ~590 mAh g −1 after 80 cycles at a current density of 0.5 A g −1 . Moreover, the composites also exhibit greatly enhanced catalysis ability towards oxygen evolution reaction (OER), ie, small Tafel slope of 84 mV dec −1 , low overpotential of 310 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm −2 , and almost no activity decay throughout 30‐hour continuous operation. This study lays a new route for smartly designing advanced electrode materials for energy storage and electrochemical catalysis.