Highly stable and methanol tolerant oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalyst Co/CoO/SnO@N-C nanocubes by one-step introduction of functional components

摘要

To develop high-performance non-precious metal-based electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is an urgent demand. We herein report an ingenious strategy to develop highly selective and competitive precious metal-free ORR electrocatalyst Co/CoO/SnO encapsulated in N-rich mesoporous carbon (CCS@NPC) nanocubes, via a simple one-step introduction of all functional components. Atomically mixed composites with significantly enhanced catalytic activity were obtained by adopting amorphous meso-porous ternary metal oxides CoSnO3 nanocubes as precursor and template. The synergistic effect of the triphase nanohybrids (Co, CoO & SnO) anchored in nitrogen-doped meso-porous carbon nanocubes promoted the catalytic reactions, owning to the anisotropic morphology, great heterojunction interfaces, and structural stability. The large-scale pre-pared CCS@NPC exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity toward ORR with an admirable onset potential (1.01 V) and diffusion-limited current density (5.88 mA cm(-2)). The CCS@NPC showed stronger stability (20 h) and higher methanol tolerance with the con-centration up to 8.0 M, compared to that of commercial Pt/C. (C) 2021 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.