Mechanochemically Synthetized PAN-Based Co-N-Doped Carbon Materials as Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Paulette Gómez-López; José Ángel Salatti-Dorado; Daily Rodríguez-Padrón; Manuel Cano; Clemente G Alvarado-Beltrán; Alain R Puente-Santiago; Juan J Giner-Casares; Rafael Luque

doi:10.3390/nano11020290

Mechanochemically Synthetized PAN-Based Co-N-Doped Carbon Materials as Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2021 Jan 22;11(2):290. doi: 10.3390/nano11020290.

Authors

Paulette Gómez-López¹, José Ángel Salatti-Dorado², Daily Rodríguez-Padrón¹, Manuel Cano², Clemente G Alvarado-Beltrán³, Alain R Puente-Santiago⁴, Juan J Giner-Casares², Rafael Luque^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Grupo FQM-383, Departamento de Química Orgánica, Universidad de Córdoba, E-14071 Córdoba, Spain.
² Departamento de Química Física y Termodinámica Aplicada, Instituto Universitario de Nanoquímica (IUNAN), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Córdoba, Campus de Rabanales, Ed. Marie Curie, E-14071 Córdoba, Spain.
³ Facultad de Ingeniería Mochis, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Fuente de Poseidón y Prol. Angel Flores, S.N., 81223 Los Mochis Sin., Mexico.
⁴ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 West University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
⁵ Scientific Center for Molecular Design and Synthesis of Innovative Compounds for the Medical Industry, People's Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), 117198 Moscow, Russia.

Abstract

We report a new class of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based Co-N-doped carbon materials that can act as suitable catalyst for oxygen evolution reactions (OER). Different Co loadings were mechanochemically added into post-consumed PAN fibers. Subsequently, the samples were treated at 300 °C under air (PAN-A) or nitrogen (PAN-N) atmosphere to promote simultaneously the Co₃O₄ species and PAN cyclization. The resulting electrocatalysts were fully characterized and analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission (TEM) and scanning electron (SEM) microscopies, as well as nitrogen porosimetry. The catalytic performance of the Co-N-doped carbon nanomaterials were tested for OER in alkaline environments. Cobalt-doped PAN-A samples showed worse OER electrocatalytic performance than their homologous PAN-N ones. The PAN-N/3% Co catalyst exhibited the lowest OER overpotential (460 mV) among all the Co-N-doped carbon nanocomposites, reaching 10 mA/cm². This work provides in-depth insights on the electrocatalytic performance of metal-doped carbon nanomaterials for OER.

Keywords: Co2O3 nanoparticles; OER; PAN; carbon N-doped; mechanochemical synthesis.

Abstract

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