Interacting Carbon Nitride and Titanium Carbide Nanosheets for High‐Performance Oxygen Evolution

• DOI: 10.1002/ange.201509758
• Publication Date: 2015-12-02T13:01:22Z
• Authors: Tian Yi Ma; Jian Liang Cao; Mietek Jaroniec; Shi Zhang Qiao
• Keywords: 660; Carbon nitride; 1503 Catalysis; oxygen-evolution reaction; titanium carbide; 1600 Chemistry; 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy; Titanium carbide; 0104 chemical sciences; electrocatalysis; Porous materials; carbon nitride; Electrocatalysis; Oxygen-evolution reaction; porous materials

AbstractFree‐standing flexible films, constructed from two‐dimensional graphitic carbon nitride and titanium carbide (with MXene phase) nanosheets, display outstanding activity and stability in catalyzing the oxygen‐evolution reaction in alkaline aqueous system, which originates from the Ti–Nx motifs acting as electroactive sites, and the hierarchically porous structure with highly hydrophilic surface. With this excellent electrocatalytic ability, comparable to that of the state‐of‐the‐art precious‐/transition‐metal catalysts and superior to that of most free‐standing films reported to date, they are directly used as efficient cathodes in rechargeable zinc–air batteries. Our findings reveal that the rational interaction between different two‐dimensional materials can remarkably promote the oxygen electrochemistry, thus boosting the entire clean energy system.