Sulfur-Modified Graphitic Carbon Nitride Nanostructures as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for Water Oxidation

Vinayak S Kale; Uk Sim; Jiwoong Yang; Kyoungsuk Jin; Sue In Chae; Woo Je Chang; Arun Kumar Sinha; Heonjin Ha; Chan-Cuk Hwang; Junghyun An; Hyo-Ki Hong; Zonghoon Lee; Ki Tae Nam; Taeghwan Hyeon

doi:10.1002/smll.201603893

Sulfur-Modified Graphitic Carbon Nitride Nanostructures as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for Water Oxidation

Small. 2017 May;13(17). doi: 10.1002/smll.201603893. Epub 2017 Feb 20.

Authors

Vinayak S Kale^{1

2}, Uk Sim³, Jiwoong Yang^{1

2

3}, Kyoungsuk Jin³, Sue In Chae^{1

2}, Woo Je Chang^{3

4}, Arun Kumar Sinha^{1

2}, Heonjin Ha³, Chan-Cuk Hwang⁵, Junghyun An³, Hyo-Ki Hong⁶, Zonghoon Lee⁶, Ki Tae Nam³, Taeghwan Hyeon^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea.
² School of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Institute of Chemical Processes, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Research Institute of Advanced Materials (RIAM), Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea.
⁴ Interdisciplinary Program for Bioengineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea.
⁵ Beamline Research Division, Pohang Accelerator Laboratory, POSTECH, Pohang, 37673, Republic of Korea.
⁶ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea.

PMID: 28218825
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201603893

Abstract

There is an urgent need to develop metal-free, low cost, durable, and highly efficient catalysts for industrially important oxygen evolution reactions. Inspired by natural geodes, unique melamine nanogeodes are successfully synthesized using hydrothermal process. Sulfur-modified graphitic carbon nitride (S-modified g-CN _x ) electrocatalysts are obtained by annealing these melamine nanogeodes in situ with sulfur. The sulfur modification in the g-CN _x structure leads to excellent oxygen evolution reaction activity by lowering the overpotential. Compared with the previously reported nonmetallic systems and well-established metallic catalysts, the S-modified g-CN _x nanostructures show superior performance, requiring a lower overpotential (290 mV) to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 and a Tafel slope of 120 mV dec^-1 with long-term durability of 91.2% retention for 18 h. These inexpensive, environmentally friendly, and easy-to-synthesize catalysts with extraordinary performance will have a high impact in the field of oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalysis.

Keywords: electrocatalysis; graphitic carbon nitride; nanostructures; oxygen evolution reaction.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't