Nitrogen-boron Dipolar-doped Nanocarbon as a High-efficiency Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

• A facile method is demonstrated for doping CNTs with nitrogen and boron.
• The nitrogen and boron dipolar-doped CNT has a high catalytic activity for ORR.
• The peak ORR current intensity of N,B-CNT is twice higher than that of Pt/C.
• The mechanism of the dipolar-doped CNT for ORR is revealed by DFT calculations.

Nitrogen-boron dipolar-doped commercial multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were prepared and demonstrated as a high-efficiency and low-cost electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The resulting nitrogen-boron dipolar-doped MWCNTs (N, B-CNTs) exhibit a doubled peak current density and a small negative shift in onset potential in ORR compared with the commercial Pt/C catalyst. The doped nitrogen and boron form n- and p-type active centers in the N, B-CNT, respectively, which can weaken the OO stretching and extend the OO bond length in oxygen reduction reaction. First-principles calculations reveal that the O3H− and O3H2 transitional states of oxygen are formed on the doped nitrogen and boron, which promotes the four-electron reaction in ORR.

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