Iridium‐Doped N‐Rich Mesoporous Carbon Electrocatalyst with Synthetic Macrocycles as Carbon Source for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction
Xin Xiao, Hao Zhang, Ying Xiong, Feng Liang, Ying‐Wei Yang
Abstract
Abstract Utilizing supramolecular synthetic macrocycles with distinct porous structures and abundant functional groups as a precursor for metal‐doped carbon electrocatalysts can endow the resulting materials with great potential in electrocatalysis. Herein, iridium‐doped electrocatalysts (CBC‐Ir), using a synthetic macrocycle named cucurbit[6]uril as the carbon source precursor, are designed and prepared. Interestingly, owing to the numerous N‐containing backbone and unique porous structure from cucurbit[6]uril self‐assembly, the newly designed catalysts CBC‐Ir possess abundant N‐doped and mesoporous structures without the need of additional N sources and templates. The catalysts exhibit superior catalytic performance toward the hydrogen evolution reaction with high Faradaic efficiency (91.5% and 92.7%), superior turnover frequency (2.1 and 0.69 H 2 s −1 ) at the 50 mV overpotential, and only 17 and 33 mV overpotentials in acidic and alkaline conditions reaching the current density of 10 mA cm −2 , better than the commercial Pt/C (28 and 43 mV). This work not only expands the application of supramolecular macrocycles in the water splitting field but also provides a new approach for preparing robust electrocatalysts.