A Copper Porphyrin-Based Conjugated Mesoporous Polymer-Derived Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen and Oxygen Evolution

• Published in: ChemSusChem Vol. 9; no. 17; pp. 2365 - 2373
• Main Authors: Cui, Shengsheng, Qian, Manman, Liu, Xiang, Sun, Zijun, Du, Pingwu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Blackwell Publishing Ltd 08-09-2016; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Carbon; Catalysis; CATALYSTS; conjugated mesoporous polymers; Copper; Copper - chemistry; COPPER OXIDE; Copper oxides; CURRENT; CURRENT DENSITY; electrocatalyst; Electrochemistry; Electrolysis; Hydrogen; Hydrogen - chemistry; hydrogen production; Metalloporphyrins - chemistry; noble-metal-free; OXIDES; Oxygen; Oxygen - chemistry; oxygen evolution; POLYMERS; Polymers - chemistry; POROSITY; Water splitting; electrocatalyst; noble-metal-free; oxygen evolution; hydrogen production; conjugated mesoporous polymers
• ISSN: 1864-5631; 1864-564X
• DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201600452

Scalable and robust catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are required for the implementation of water splitting technologies as a globally applicable method of producing renewable hydrogen. Herein, we report nitrogen‐enriched porous carbon materials containing copper/copper oxide, derived from copper porphyrin‐based conjugated mesoporous polymers (CMPs), as a bifunctional catalyst for both HER and OER. These catalysts have a high surface area, unique tubular structure, and strong synergistic effect of copper/copper oxide and porous carbons, resulting in excellent performance for water splitting. Under optimal conditions, the catalyst exhibits a quite low overpotential for OER (350 mV to reach 1.0 mA cm−2 and 450 mV to reach 10 mA cm−2) in alkaline media, which places it among the best copper‐based water oxidation catalysts reported in the literature. Furthermore, the catalyst shows good catalytic activity for HER at a low overpotential (190 mV to reach 1.0 mA cm−2) as well as a high current density (470 mV to reach 50 mA cm−2). The results suggest that hybridized copper/carbon materials are attractive noble‐metal‐free catalysts for water splitting.
OER and HER! Nitrogen‐enriched hollow carbon materials containing copper/copper oxide derived from copper porphyrin‐based conjugated mesoporous polymers (CMPs) has been developed as a bifunctional catalyst with low overpotentials for both HER and OER.