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Designing Thiophene-Enriched Fully Conjugated 3D Covalent Organic Framework as Metal-Free Oxygen Reduction Catalyst for Hydrogen Fuel Cells |
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| Authors: | Rui Bao Zhehao Xiang Zelong Qiao Yongping Yang Yuting Zhang Prof Dr Dapeng Cao Prof Dr Shitao Wang |
| Institution: | 1. State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029 P. R. China
These authors contributed equally to this work.;2. State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029 P. R. China |
| Abstract: | The application of three-dimensional (3D) covalent organic frameworks (COFs) in renewable energy fields is greatly limited due to their non-conjugated skeletons. Here, we design and successfully synthesize a thiophene-enriched fully conjugated 3D COF (BUCT-COF-11) through an all-thiophene-linked saddle-shaped building block (COThTh-CHO). The BUCT-COF-11 exhibits excellent semiconducting property with intrinsic metal-free oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity. Using the COF as cathode catalyst, the assembled anion-exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) exhibited a high peak power density up to 493 mW cm−2. DFT calculations reveal that thiophene introduction in the COF not only improves the conductivity but also optimizes the electronic structure of the sample, which therefore boosts the ORR performance. This is the first report on the application of COFs as metal-free catalysts in fuel cells, demonstrating the great potential of fully conjugated 3D COFs as promising semiconductors in energy fields. |
| Keywords: | Conjugated polymer Three dimension Oxygen reduction Metal-free catalyst Fuel cells |