Revealing Crucial Influences of Boron Support on Regulating Geometric and Electronic Structures of 3D Catalyst for Hydrogen Evolution and Oxygen Reduction Reactions
Building insights into the structure-performance relationship of catalysts has been emphasized recently. However, it remains a challenge due to catalysts' various and complex structures, especially the easily overlooked influence of the support material. Here, we reveal the crucial influences of boron introduction on synthesizing 3D carbon nanotube monoliths with embedded multistate Co metals, i.e., single atoms, clusters, and nanoparticles (Co-BNCNTs), by an interesting chemical blowing-assisted calcination method. The boron introduction can contribute to forming captivating boron-nitrogen pairs, shaping a 3D frame, and regulating electronic structure. The 3D Co-BNCNT monoliths present good catalytic performance for both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at all pH values and the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The theoretical calculations indicate that the B incorporation in Co-NCNTs can optimize the free energy of adsorbed hydrogen and facilitate the O<sub>2</sub> adsorption and the protonation of the O<sub>2</sub>* species. Furthermore, the Co-BNCNTs-based zinc-air battery provides great battery performance with a high power density and discharge-charge durability.
Authors
- Jie Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9774-1240)
- Jiamu Dai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0627-4999)
- Jinjue Zeng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9935-0921)
- Mingzheng Ge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3448-116X)
- Xuebin Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7894-1922)
- Olivier Fontaine (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1804-5990)
- Xianqi Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5763-8940)
- Xiaoyu Wan
- Yachao Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8057-3754)
- Yuhan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0505-6322)
- Shuixiang Xie
- Xiaojun Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1506-0762)
- Xiong Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9760-5206)
- Guangyu Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1364-3350)
- Ruiqing Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0988-0553)
- Changming Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9143-225X)
- Wei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4771-7573)
- Zhe Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-8503-3041)
- Songyun Guo
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Université de Montpellier (FR)
- Nantong University (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Chengdu University (CN)
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures (CN)
- Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology (TH)
- Southwest Jiaotong University (CN)
- Nanjing University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nano Letters
- Published
- 2025-01-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c04141
- Citations
- 19
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 6.91
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
- Suzhou University of Science and Technology
- Nantong University
- Natural Science Research of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China