碳纳米管基非贵金属催化剂在电催化氧化还原中的应用研究进展

燃料电池和金属-空气电池是将化学能直接转化成电能的绿色电池,具有能量密度高、安全和环保等优点,相比传统能源具有独特优势。然而,目前阴极氧还原反应(oxygen reduction reaction,ORR)使用的贵金属铂(Pt)储量低,成本高,易中毒失活,严重限制了燃料电池的大规模应用。因此,开发廉价、高效、稳定的非贵金属催化剂成为研究热点。碳纳米管具有本征sp~2杂化结构、优异的导电性、高比表面积、良好的化学稳定性等突出优点,受到广泛关注。本文综述了碳纳米管基非贵金属ORR催化剂的最新进展,主要包括非金属掺杂、过渡金属-氮-碳纳米管、负载过渡金属及其衍生物(氧化物、碳化物、氮化物、硫化物等)、负载单原子、与其他碳材料(石墨烯、多孔碳、碳纳米纤维)复合以及碳纳米管基自支撑电极。最后,对碳纳米管基非贵金属ORR催化剂的研究前景和下一步研究方向进行了展望。

Research Progress on Carbon Nanotubes in Noble-Metal-Free Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Fuel cell and metal-air batteries are green batteries which directly convert chemical energy into electricity, possessing important merits compared to the traditional energy, examples of high energy density, safety and environmental benignity. However, the low reserves, high cost, easy poisoning and deactivation of precious metal platinum (Pt) used in cathodic oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) have severely limited the development of the fuel cell in large-scale. Therefore, the research on development of cheap, efficient and stable non-precious metal catalyst has become a hotspot. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), owning to the outstanding feature such as the intrisic sp² hybrid structure, excellent conductivity, high specific surface area, good chemical stability, etc, have received wide attentions. Firstly, the recent progress in the noble-metal-free CNTs-based ORR catalysts were summarized, mainly including non-metal element doping, transition metal-nitrogen-CNTs, CNTs supported transition metals and their derivations (oxides, carbides, nitrides, sulfides, etc), CNTs supported single atoms, composited with other carbon materials (graphene, porous carbon, carbon nanofibers) and self-standing electrodes based on CNTs. Finally, the prospect and the future research direction of CNTs-based ORR catalysts are also discussed.