Carbon Nanotube/Boron Nitride Nanocomposite as a Significant Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction and Oxygen Evolution Reactions

It is an immense challenge to develop bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) and oxygen evolution reactions (OER) in low temperature fuel cells and rechargeable metal–air batteries. Herein, a simple and cost‐effective approach is developed to prepare novel materials based...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemistry : a European journal 2017-01, Vol.23 (3), p.676-683
Main Authors: Patil, Indrajit M., Lokanathan, Moorthi, Ganesan, Balakrishnan, Swami, Anita, Kakade, Bhalchandra
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
boron
Boron nitride
Carbon nanotubes
Catalysts
Chemistry
Electrocatalysts
Evolution
fuel cells
Methyl alcohol
Nanocomposites
Nanotubes
nitrides
Oxygen
oxygen reduction reaction
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Summary:It is an immense challenge to develop bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) and oxygen evolution reactions (OER) in low temperature fuel cells and rechargeable metal–air batteries. Herein, a simple and cost‐effective approach is developed to prepare novel materials based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and a hexagonal boron nitride (h‐BN) nanocomposite (CNT/BN) through a one‐step hydrothermal method. The structural analysis and morphology study confirms the formation of a homogeneous composite and merging of few exfoliated graphene layers of CNTs on the graphitic planes of h‐BN, respectively. Moreover, the electrochemical study implies that CNT/BN nanocomposite shows a significantly higher ORR activity with a single step 4‐electron transfer pathway and an improved onset potential of +0.86 V versus RHE and a current density of 5.78 mA cm−2 in alkaline conditions. Interestingly, it exhibits appreciably better catalytic activity towards OER at low overpotential (η=0.38 V) under similar conditions. Moreover, this bifunctional catalyst shows substantially higher stability than a commercial Pt/C catalyst even after 5000 cycles. Additionally, this composite catalyst does not show any methanol oxidation reactions that nullify the issues due to fuel cross‐over effects in direct methanol fuel cell applications. Small but powerful: A carbon nanotube/boron nitride nanocomposite has shown to be a remarkable bi‐functional electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions (see figure).
ISSN:0947-6539
1521-3765
DOI:10.1002/chem.201604231