Optimizing the electronic structure of CoNx via coupling with N-doped carbon for efficient electrochemical hydrogen evolution

Peiyun Zhou; Rushuo Li; Junjun Lv; Gongchi Zhao; Xiaowei Zhang; Xiubing Huang; Yunfeng Lu; Ge Wang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.08.081

Optimizing the electronic structure of CoN_x via coupling with N-doped carbon for efficient electrochemical hydrogen evolution

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Dec 15;628(Pt B):350-358. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.08.081. Epub 2022 Aug 17.

Authors

Peiyun Zhou¹, Rushuo Li¹, Junjun Lv¹, Gongchi Zhao¹, Xiaowei Zhang², Xiubing Huang³, Yunfeng Lu⁴, Ge Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering, Beijing Key Laboratory of Function Materials for Molecule & Structure Construction, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, PR China.
² Institute of Advanced Materials, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China.
³ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering, Beijing Key Laboratory of Function Materials for Molecule & Structure Construction, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, PR China. Electronic address: xiubinghuang@ustb.edu.cn.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States. Electronic address: luucla@ucla.edu.
⁵ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering, Beijing Key Laboratory of Function Materials for Molecule & Structure Construction, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, PR China; Institute of Advanced Materials, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China; Shunde Graduate School, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Shunde 528399, PR China. Electronic address: gewang@ustb.edu.cn.

PMID: 35998460
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.08.081

Abstract

Transition metal nitrides (TMNs) have been regarded as an excellent class of electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), but there is still huge room for improvement. In this work, cobalt nitride (CoN_x) coupled with N-doped carbon (NC) and supported by nickel foam (NF) is designed as an efficient HER electrocatalyst (NF/CoN_x@NC). The introduction of NC can not only optimize the electronic structure of CoN_x to boost the intrinsic activity, but also enhance the electronic conductivity and stability of the catalyst. As a result, NF/CoN_x@NC exhibits excellent HER performance. On the one hand, it only needs an overpotential of 69 mV to deliver a current density of 20 mA cm^-2 in 1.0 mol/L KOH, far better than that of CoN_x (182 mV). On the other hand, the electronic conductivity and stability of the catalyst can be significantly enhanced after the introduction of NC. This work has done successful material design with the goal of enhancing the intrinsic activity, electronic conductivity, and stability, which has certain reference and guiding significance for the design of novel transition metal-based electrocatalysts.

Keywords: Alkaline HER; Cobalt nitride; Electronic structure; Intrinsic activity; N-doped carbon.