title: Bamboo-Like Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes with Co Nanoparticles Encapsulated at the Tips: Uniform and Large-Scale Synthesis and High-Performance Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction.
abstract: In recent years, various non-precious metal electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) have been extensively investigated. The development of an efficient and simple method to synthesize non-precious metal catalysts with ORR activity superior to that of Pt is extremely significant for large-scale applications of fuel cells. Here, we develop a facile, low-cost, and large-scale synthesis method for uniform nitrogen-doped (N-doped) bamboo-like CNTs (NBCNT) with Co nanoparticles encapsulated at the tips by annealing a mixture of cobalt acetate and melamine. The uniform NBCNT shows better ORR catalytic activity and higher stability in alkaline solutions as compared with commercial Pt/C and comparable catalytic activity to Pt/C in acidic media. NBCNTs exhibit outstanding ORR catalytic activity due to high defect density, uniform bamboo-like structure, and the synergistic effect between the Co nanoparticles and protective graphitic layers. This facile method to synthesize catalysts, which is amenable to the large-scale commercialization of fuel cells, will open a new avenue for the development of low-cost and high-performance ORR catalysts to replace Pt-based catalysts for applications in energy conversion.
authors.affiliation: Tai Cao, Prof. J. Zhang, Prof. C. Cao, Research Centre of Materials Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081 (P.R. China).|Tai Cao, Dr. D. Wang, Prof. Y. Li, Department of Chemistry and Collaborative Innovation Center for Nanomaterial Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084 (P.R. China).
authors.forename: Tai
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Tai Cao, Dr. D. Wang, Prof. Y. Li, Department of Chemistry and Collaborative Innovation Center for Nanomaterial Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084 (P.R. China). wangdingsheng@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Dingsheng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Tai Cao, Prof. J. Zhang, Prof. C. Cao, Research Centre of Materials Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081 (P.R. China).
authors.forename: Jiatao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Tai Cao, Prof. J. Zhang, Prof. C. Cao, Research Centre of Materials Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081 (P.R. China). cbcao@bit.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Chuanbao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Tai Cao, Dr. D. Wang, Prof. Y. Li, Department of Chemistry and Collaborative Innovation Center for Nanomaterial Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084 (P.R. China).
authors.forename: Yadong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
keywords: doping; nanotubes; nitrogen; oxygen; reduction; transition metals