화학공학소재연구정보센터
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol.45, No.7, 4035-4042, 2020
Nitrogen doped carbon fibers derived from carbonization of electrospun polyacrylonitrile as efficient metal-free HER electrocatalyst
Development of durable and efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is significantly important for forwarding the commercialization of water splitting technology. In this work, we report a facile synthesis of nitrogen doped carbon fibers derived from the carbonization of the electron-spun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) membrane at 800 degrees C (NCFs-800) as efficient and stable metal-free electrocatalyst for HER catalysis in both acidic and alkaline mediums. Ascribing to the homogenous nitrogen dopants in electrocatalyst, NCFs-800 requires only 114.3 mV and 198.6 mV vs. RHE to achieve current density of 10 mA cm(-2) in 0.5 M H2SO4 and 1 M KOH electrolytes, respectively. Moreover, the HER activity is well maintained after 2000 potential cycles indicating that NCFs-800 possesses high durability in both acidic and alkaline conditions due to the fibrous structure with high corrosion resistance. Our study offers new strategy to synthesize stable and efficient metal-free electrocatalyst, which could be extended to other heteroatom doped carbon electrocatalyst. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.