Nitrogen-doped graphene/carbon nanotube/Co3O4 hybrids: one-step synthesis and superior electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction

Hengyi Lu; Yunpeng Huang; Jiajie Yan; Wei Fan; Tianxi Liu

doi:10.1039/C5RA17759F

Nitrogen-doped graphene/carbon nanotube/Co₃O₄ hybrids: one-step synthesis and superior electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction†

Hengyi Lu,^a Yunpeng Huang,^a Jiajie Yan,^a Wei Fan*^b and Tianxi Liu*^ab

* Corresponding authors

^a State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, P. R. China
E-mail: txliu@fudan.edu.cn
Fax: +86-21-65640293
Tel: +86-21-55664197

^b State Key Laboratory of Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, 2999 North Renmin Road, Shanghai 201620, P. R. China
E-mail: 10110440003@fudan.edu.cn

Abstract

Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts play an important role in fuel cells, and the ever-increasing energy demand calls for efficient and cost-effective ORR catalysts. However, commercial ORR catalysts are mainly noble metal based materials like Pt/C, which suffer from drawbacks of high cost and poor stability. In this study, we prepared a non-noble metal ORR catalyst with high efficiency through a simple one-step hydrothermal method, in which the reduction of graphene oxide (GO) along with the doping of nitrogen and Co₃O₄ nanoparticles were realized at the same time, thus resulting in a unique hierarchical structure of nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide/carbon nanotube/Co₃O₄ (N-rGO/CNT/Co₃O₄) hybrids. Due to the synergistic effects between the active components and the effective nitrogen doping, as well as the space effect of CNTs and Co₃O₄ nanoparticles on avoiding the restacking of graphene nanosheets, the N-rGO/CNT/Co₃O₄ hybrids exhibited enhanced ORR catalytic performance with long-term stability and excellent resistance towards methanol crossover effects, indicating their promising potential as ORR electrocatalysts in practical applications.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C5RA17759F
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 01 Sep 2015
Accepted: 23 Oct 2015
First published: 28 Oct 2015

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RSC Adv., 2015,5, 94615-94622

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Nitrogen-doped graphene/carbon nanotube/Co₃O₄ hybrids: one-step synthesis and superior electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction

H. Lu, Y. Huang, J. Yan, W. Fan and T. Liu, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 94615 DOI: 10.1039/C5RA17759F

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Nitrogen-doped graphene/carbon nanotube/Co₃O₄ hybrids: one-step synthesis and superior electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction†

Abstract

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Nitrogen-doped graphene/carbon nanotube/Co₃O₄ hybrids: one-step synthesis and superior electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction

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