Trifunctional Electrocatalytic Activities Of Nitrogen-Doped Graphitic Carbon Nanofibers Synthesized By Chemical Vapor Deposition

High performance multifunctional electrocatalysts are attracting significant importance for application in energy storage, energy conversion and various other electrochemical reactions. In this prospect, we report on the effective trifunctional electrocatalytic properties of nitrogen (N) doped graphitic carbon nanofibers (CNFs). The CNFs were synthesized on a nichrome (NiCr) foil by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. Incorporation of Ni and Cr was observed in the N doped CNFs sample from microscopic and spectroscopic analysis. The metal nanoparticles can be significant in boosting the trifunctional electrocatalytic behavior. The effective oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activities were obtained for the CNFs sample with relatively good overpotential values. The electron transfer number per O-2 molecule calculated from Koutecky-Levich (K-L) plot was found to be 2e(-) for the ORR reaction. The OER activity of the CNFs is comparable to commercially available iridium oxide (IrO2), signifying the effectiveness of the developed catalyst. Our study revealed that N doped CNFs with incorporation of metal particles synthesized on a binary metal substrate can be significant as ORR, OER, HER trifunctional electrocatalyst.