In Situ Exfoliated,Edge‐Rich,Oxygen‐Functionalized Graphene from Carbon Fibers for Oxygen Electrocatalysis |
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| Authors: | Zhijuan Liu Zhenghang Zhao Yanyong Wang Shuo Dou Dafeng Yan Dongdong Liu Zhenhai Xia Shuangyin Wang |
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| Affiliation: | 1. State Key Laboratory of Chem/Bio‐Sensing and Chemometrics, Provincial Hunan Key Laboratory for Graphene Materials and Devices, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, China;2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Department of Chemistry, University of North Texas, Denton, USA;3. College of Energy, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China |
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| Abstract: | Metal‐free electrocatalysts have been extensively developed to replace noble metal Pt and RuO2 catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in fuel cells or metal–air batteries. These electrocatalysts are usually deposited on a 3D conductive support (e.g., carbon paper or carbon cloth (CC)) to facilitate mass and electron transport. For practical applications, it is desirable to create in situ catalysts on the carbon fiber support to simplify the fabrication process for catalytic electrodes. In this study, the first example of in situ exfoliated, edge‐rich, oxygen‐functionalized graphene on the surface of carbon fibers using Ar plasma treatment is successfully prepared. Compared to pristine CC, the plasma‐etched carbon cloth (P‐CC) has a higher specific surface area and an increased number of active sites for OER and ORR. P‐CC also displays good intrinsic electron conductivity and excellent mass transport. Theoretical studies show that P‐CC has a low overpotential that is comparable to Pt‐based catalysts, as a result of both defects and oxygen doping. This study provides a simple and effective approach for producing highly active in situ catalysts on a carbon support for OER and ORR. |
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| Keywords: | electrocatalysts graphene metal‐free oxygen evolution reaction oxygen reduction reaction |
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