Journal
NANO RESEARCH
Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages 975-982Publisher
TSINGHUA UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-020-2727-7
Keywords
hydrogen evolution reaction; nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes; Ni nanoparticles; carbon nanorods; hierarchically branched structure
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [21972068, 21875112, 21576139, 51871060, 51672049]
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [BK20171473]
- National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Biomedical Functional Materials
- Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions
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Searching for inexpensive, efficient and durable electrocatalysts with earth-abundant elements toward the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is of vital importance for the future sustainable hydrogen economy, yet still remains a formidable challenge. Herein, a facile template-engaged strategy is demonstrated for the direct in-situ growth of Ni nanoparticles and N-doped carbon nanotubes on carbon nanorod substrates, forming a hierarchically branched architecture (abbreviated as Ni@N-C NT/NRs hereafter). The elaborate construction of such unique hierarchical structure with tightly encapsulated Ni nanoparticles and open configuration endows the as-fabricated Ni@N-C NT/NRs with abundant well-dispersed active sites, enlarged surface area, reduced resistances of charge transfer and mass diffusion, and reinforced mechanical robustness. As a consequence, the optimal Ni@N-C NT/NR catalyst demonstrates superior electrocatalytic activity with relatively low overpotential of 134 mV to deliver a current density of 10 mA center dot cm(-2) and excellent stability for HER in 0.1 M KOH, holding a great promise for practical scalable H-2 production. More importantly, this work offers a reliable methodology for feasible fabrication of robust high-performance carbon-based hierarchical architectures for a variety of electrochemical applications.
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