Issue 5, 2019

Multifunctional hollow sandwich structure with many active sites for electronic transfer modulation and its application in energy storage and conversion

Abstract

Revealing the fundamental mechanism of effective, low-cost multifunctional electrocatalysts based on a hollow sandwich structure is desirable for energy storage and conversion. Transition metal sulfides (TMS) and carbon-based heteroatom-doped materials are designed to achieve hollow structures with large specific surface areas. These materials require the well-organized integration of dual carbon layers with different morphologies and active Ni3S2 nanosheets to form a multifunctional electrocatalyst. The interactions among the three components also require elucidation. In this work, we synthesized N-doped hollow carbon spheres (NHC) to obtain a large specific surface area and many active sites. Then, hierarchical Ni3S2 nanosheets were adhered to the NHC surfaces to form an NHC/Ni3S2 nanocomposite. The nanocomposite was encapsulated in reduced graphene oxide (RGO) to form an NHC/Ni3S2/RGO sandwich structure. The NHC/Ni3S2/RGO nanocomposite showed outstanding performance as a multifunctional catalyst in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), in the acidic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and in the energy storage systems of supercapacitors (pseudocapacitance). A DSSC containing the nanocomposite as a counter electrode achieved a photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) of up to 9.03%. The specific capacitance of the supercapacitor containing the nanocomposite was 990.6 F g−1. When the composite was used as a catalytic electrode for the HER, a current density of 10 mA cm−2 was achieved with an overpotential of only −142 mV. In addition, the Tafel slope (98.1 mV dec−1) in 0.5 M H2SO4 solution was small. This work contributes a strategy for the development of multifunctional catalytic materials for energy storage and conversion.

Graphical abstract: Multifunctional hollow sandwich structure with many active sites for electronic transfer modulation and its application in energy storage and conversion

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
02 Mar 2019
Accepted
24 May 2019
First published
25 May 2019

Nanoscale Horiz., 2019,4, 1211-1220

Multifunctional hollow sandwich structure with many active sites for electronic transfer modulation and its application in energy storage and conversion

W. Wang, J. Yao, X. Zuo, Q. Yang, M. Wu, H. Tang, S. Jin and G. Li, Nanoscale Horiz., 2019, 4, 1211 DOI: 10.1039/C9NH00133F

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