Enhancing Electron Transfer And Electrocatalytic Activity On Crystalline Carbon-Conjugated G-C3N4

Keywords

aluminum-air battery; crystalline carbon; g-C N 3 4; oxygen evolution; oxygen reduction

Abstract

Carbon nitride (g-C3N4) materials are electro-activated for oxygen reduction (ORR) and oxygen evolution (OER) reactions when they are supported by conductive carbons. However, the electrocatalytic process on semiconductor-based heterostructures such as carbon-supported g-C3N4 still suffers from a huge energy loss because of poor electron mobility. Here, we demonstrated a concept that the conjugation of g-C3N4 with crystalline carbon can improve the in-plane electron mobility and make interior triazine units more electro-active for ORR and OER. As a result, the Co metal coordinated g-C3N4 with crystalline carbons (Co-C3N4/C) showed a remarkable electrocatalytic performance toward both ORR and OER. For example, it displayed an onset potential of 0.95 V for ORR and an overpotential of 1.65 V for OER at 10 mA cm-2, which are comparable and even better than those of benchmark Pt, RuO2, and other carbon nitride-based electrocatalysts. As a proof-of-concept application, we employed this catalyst as an air electrode in the rechargeable aluminum-air battery, which showed more rechargeable and practicable than those of Pt/C and RuO2 catalysts in two-electrode coin battery. The characterization results identified that the good performance of Co-C3N4/C was primarily attributed to the enhanced in-plane electron mobility by crystalline carbon conjugation and the Co-coordinated g-C3N4 along with nitrogen-doped carbons.

Publication Date

3-2-2018

Publication Title

ACS Catalysis

Volume

8

Issue

3

Number of Pages

1926-1931

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.8b00026

Socpus ID

85042931605 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85042931605

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