Sulfur and Nitrogen Codoped Carbon Tubes as Bifunctional Metal-Free Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction and Hydrogen Evolution in Acidic Media

The technological combination of fuel cells with water electrolysis is an ideal approach to address the problems of growing energy needs and environmental pollution, in which exploring cheap and stable electrocatalysts is the main challenge. Sulfur and nitrogen codoped carbon tubes (SNCTs), prepared by annealing the mixture of amorphous carbonaceous tubes and cysteine, are found to be active bifunctional metal-free electrocatalysts for both oxygen reduction and hydrogen evolution in acidic medium. The optimized SNCT catalyst exhibits a record high onset potential of 851mV (vs. RHE) for oxygen reduction and concurrent a low overpotential of 76mV for hydrogen evolution, with superior stability and low cost. The SNCT electrocatalyst could have great potential in proton exchange membrane fuel cells and water splitting devices.