Cobalt nanocrystals encapsulated in heteroatom-rich porous carbons derived from conjugated microporous polymers for efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Wang, Haige, Hou, Bo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9918-8223, Yang, Yang, Chen, Qianwang, Zhu, Meifang, Thomas, Arne and Liao, Yaozu 2018. Cobalt nanocrystals encapsulated in heteroatom-rich porous carbons derived from conjugated microporous polymers for efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Small 14 (42) , -. 10.1002/smll.201803232

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Abstract

Cobalt nanocrystals encapsulated in N,O‐dual‐doped porous carbons as efficient and stable electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are reported. A heteroatom‐rich‐conjugated microporous polymer is first chemically deposited on a carbon fiber cloth, and after addition of a cobalt salt, pyrolyzed to produce a heteroatom‐doped C/Co nanocrystal composite. With this process, the use of additional binders for preparation of electrodes can be avoided. With a trace cobalt loading (0.46 wt%), the electrodes achieve a low Tafel slope of 46 mV dec−1 and overpotential of only 69 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in 0.5 m H2SO4. Experimental and computational studies reveal that the superior HER behavior is due to a decreased free energy of hydrogen adsorption, induced by i) electrons transferred from the cobalt nanocrystals to graphite layers and ii) N,O‐dual doping reduced the Fermi level of neighboring C atoms.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	1613-6810
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	25 February 2020
Last Modified:	31 Jan 2025 16:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/129541

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