Exposing single Ni atoms in hollow S/N-doped carbon macroporous fibers for highly efficient electrochemical oxygen evolution

• Main Authors: Zhao, Yafei, Guo, Yan, Lu, Xue Feng, Luan, Deyan, Gu, Xiaojun, Lou, Xiong Wen David
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Science::Chemistry; Macroporous Materials; Oxygen Evolution Reaction
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/166117
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The development of efficient and cost-effective electrocatalysts toward the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is highly desirable for clean energy and fuel conversion. Herein, the facile preparation of Ni single atoms embedded hollow S/N-doped carbon macroporous fibers (Ni SAs@S/N-CMF) as efficient catalysts for OER through pyrolysis of designed CdS-NiSx/polyacrylonitrile composite fibers is reported. Specifically, CdS provides the sulfur source for the doping of polyacrylonitrile-derived carbon matrix and simultaneously creates the hollow macroporous structure, while NiSx is first reduced to nanoparticles and finally evolves into single Ni atoms through the atom migration-trapping strategy. Benefiting from the abundantly exposed single Ni atoms and hollow macroporous structure, the resultant Ni SAs@S/N-CMF electrocatalysts deliver outstanding activity and stability for OER. Specifically, it needs an overpotential of 285 mV to achieve the benchmark current density of 10 mA cm−2 with a small Tafel slope of 50.8 mV dec−1.