Utilization of nitrogen, sulfur co-doped porous carbon micron spheres as bifunctional electrocatalysts for electrochemical detection of cadmium, lead and mercury ions and oxygen evolution reaction

Huiyu Li; Na Li; Pingping Zuo; Shijie Qu; Fangfang Qin; Wenzhong Shen

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.125

Utilization of nitrogen, sulfur co-doped porous carbon micron spheres as bifunctional electrocatalysts for electrochemical detection of cadmium, lead and mercury ions and oxygen evolution reaction

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Jun 15:640:391-404. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.125. Epub 2023 Feb 27.

Authors

Huiyu Li¹, Na Li², Pingping Zuo³, Shijie Qu⁴, Fangfang Qin⁵, Wenzhong Shen⁶

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, PR China; Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China. Electronic address: lihuiyu18@mails.ucas.ac.cn.
² State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, PR China; Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China; School of Energy Industry, Shanxi College of Technology, Shuozhou, 036000, PR China. Electronic address: hellestar@163.com.
³ State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, PR China. Electronic address: zuopingping@sxicc.ac.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, PR China. Electronic address: qusj@sxicc.ac.cn.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, PR China. Electronic address: qinff@sxicc.ac.cn.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan 030001, PR China. Electronic address: shenwzh@sxicc.ac.cn.

PMID: 36867936
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.125

Abstract

The development of high-performance bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction and heavy metal ion (HMI) detection is significant and challenging. Here, a novel nitrogen, sulfur co-doped porous carbon sphere bifunctional catalyst was designed and fabricated by hydrothermal followed by carbonization using starch as carbon source and thiourea as nitrogen, sulfur source for HMI detection and oxygen evolution reactions. Under the synergistic effect of pore structure, active sites and nitrogen, sulfur functional groups, C-S_0.75-HT-C₈₀₀ demonstrated excellent HMI detection performance and oxygen evolution reaction activity. Under optimized conditions, the detection limits (LODs) of C-S_0.75-HT-C₈₀₀ sensor were 3.90, 3.86 and 4.91 nM for Cd²⁺, Pb²⁺ and Hg²⁺ when detected individually; and the sensitivities were 13.12, 19.50 and 21.19 μA/μM. The sensor also obtained high recoveries of Cd²⁺, Hg²⁺ and Pb²⁺ in river water samples. During the oxygen evolution reaction, a Tafel slope of 70.1 mV/dec and a low overpotential of 277 mV were obtained for C-S_0.75-HT-C₈₀₀ electrocatalyst with a current density of 10 mA/cm² in basic electrolyte. This research offers a neoteric and simple strategy in the design as well as fabrication of bifunctional carbon-based electrocatalysts.

Keywords: Carbon-based electrocatalyst; Cd(2+), Pb(2+), Hg(2+) detection; Oxygen evolution reaction; Starch-based carbon materials.