Construction of N-doped carbon nanotube encapsulated active nanoparticles in hierarchically porous carbonized wood frameworks to boost the oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract Architecture design and optimization are regarded as essential approaches for improving the catalytic performance toward oxygen evolution reaction. Inspired by the natural porosity and directional micro-channels of wood, a universal strategy that N-doped carbon nanotube encapsulated active nanoparticles rooted into carbonized wood framework is proposed. The as-prepared catalysts show ultrahigh activity and robust stability. Representatively, the FeNi-P encapsulated in N-doped carbon nanotubes grown on the carbonized wood frameworks (denoted as FeNi–P@NCNT/CW) exhibit an outstanding OER activity with an overpotential of 180 mV to reach 50 mA cm−2. As comparison, such catalysts integrated in nickel foam and carbon paper require higher overpotentials with 251 and 249 mV, respectively. Furthermore, a steady OER overpotential is maintained even tested for more than 200 h (4.2% decay). The referred construction will open a new road to adopting renewable resources for preparing efficient electrocatalysts and other electrochemical energy-conversion devices.