Co/MnO/N-C hybrid derived from N-methyl-D-glucamine as efficient bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts. (10th August 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Wei; Wang, Haitao; Wu, Zexing; Yu, Yang; Asif, Muhammad; Wang, Zhengyun; Qiu, Xiaoyu; Liu, Hongfang
• Is Part Of: Electrochimica acta. Volume 281(2018)
• Page Start: 486
• Page End: 493
• Publication Date: 2018-08-10
• Subjects: Chelation -- Hybrid -- Oxygen reduction -- Oxygen evolution -- Bifunctional; Electrochemistry -- Periodicals; Electrochemistry, Industrial -- Periodicals; 541.37
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2018.05.207
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-4686

Abstract

Abstract: The low oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalytic activities of Mn-based bifunctional electrocatalysts restrict their further development in clean energy equipment. In this work, Co/MnO/N-C oxygen electrocatalyst was prepared through a simple solvothermal and subsequent annealing process by using N-Methyl-d -glucamine as nitrogen and carbon source simultaneously. Benefiting from the abundant oxygen related defect and high content of pyridinic N and graphitic N, the resultant Co/MnO/N-C hybrid presents comparable ORR performance with positive half-wave potential of 0.822 V vs. RHE, high kinetic current density of 3.81 mA cm −2 and superior stability compare with the commercial Pt/C. Besides, the as-prepared hybrid also showed efficient catalytic activity towards oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with a low overpotential of 379 mV and low Tafel slope of 101 mV dec −1 . Importantly, this work presents a versatile strategy of Mn-based electrocatalyst in enhancing the ORR and OER electrocatalytic activity to the future design. Graphical abstract: Co/MnO/N-C hybrid is successfully synthesized via a facile solvothermal method by using N-methyl-d -glucamine as nitrogen and carbon source simultaneously. The as-prepared hybrid displays efficient bifunctional oxygen electrocatalytic activities towards ORR and OER. Image 1 Highlights: A bimetallic Co/MnO/N-C hybrid electrocatalyst was successfully synthesized. The high efficient bifunctional oxygen electrocatalytic activities towards ORR and OER were achieved. The optimal catalyst contains high content of pyridinic N and graphitic N and abundant oxygen related defect. The synthetic strategy can potentially be extended to synthesize other transition-metal based carbon nanomaterials.