Nitrogen-doped truncated carbon nanotubes inserted into nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets with a sandwich structure: a highly efficient metal-free catalyst for the HER

摘要: A new promising metal-free catalyst (N-TCNT@NGS), with a sandwich structure of 1-dimensional nitrogen-doped truncated carbon nanotubes inserted between 2-dimensional graphene nanosheets, was synthesized by facile and green hydrothermal method. Due to the unique structure, multipath charge mass transport, N-TCNT@NGS exhibits incredible electrocatalytic ability robust durability for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) (Tafel slope: 50 mV dec−1, onset overpotential: −16 mV, operating overpotential at 10 mA cm−2: −62 mV).