Improved properties of carbon fiber paper as electrode for fuel cell by coating pyrocarbon via CVD method

The fabrication of a pyrocarbon coated carbon paper and its application to the gas diffusion lay(GDL) of proton exchange membrane(PEM) fuel cell were described.This carbon paper was fabricated by using conventional carbon paper as the precursor,and coating it with pyrocarbon by pyrolyzing propylene via the chemical vapor deposition(CVD) method.For comparison,conventional carbon paper composites were also prepared by using PAN-based carbon fiber felt as the precursor followed by impregnation with resin,molding and heat-treatment.SEM characterization indicates that pyrocarbon is uniformly deposited on the surface of the fiber in the pyrocarbon coated carbon paper and made the fibers of carbon felt bind more tightly.In contrast,there are cracks in matrix and debonding of fibers due to carbonization shrinkage in the conventional carbon paper.Property measurements show that the former has much better conductivity and gas permeability than the latter.In addition,current density-voltage performance tests also reveal that the pyrocarbon coating can improve the properties of carbon paper used for electrode materials of fuel cell.

Tuning the electronic structure of NiCoP arrays through V doping for pH-universal hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalyst

The exploration of cost-effective,high-performance,and stable electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction(HER)over wide pH range(0–14)is of paramount importance for future renewable energy conversion technologies.Regulation of electronic structure through doping vanadium atoms is a feasible construction strategy to enhance catalytic activities,electron transfer capability,and stability of the HER electrode.Herein,V-doped NiCoP nanosheets on carbon fiber paper(CFP)(denoted as Vx-NiCoP/CFP)were constructed by doping V modulation on NiCoP nanosheets on CFP and used for pH-universal HER.Benefiting from the abundant catalytic sites and optimized hydrogen binding thermodynamics,the resultant V15-NiCoP/CFP demonstrates a significantly improved HER catalytic activity,requiring overpotentials of 46.5,52.4,and 85.3 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA·cm^(−2)in 1 mol·L^(−1) KOH,0.5 mol·L^(−1) H_(2)SO_(4),and 1 mol·L^(−1) phosphate buffer solution(PBS)electrolytes,respectively.This proposed cation-doping strategy provides a new inspiration to rationally enhance or design new-type nonprecious metal-based,highly efficient,and pH-universal electrocatalysts for various energy conversion systems.

Self-crystallized Interlayer Integrating Polysulfide-adsorbed TiO2/TiO and Highly-electron-conductive TiO for High-stability Lithium-sulfur Batteries

Low-cost lithium sulfur(Li-S)batteries afford preeminent prospect as a next-generation high-energy storage device by virtue of great theoretical capacity.Nevertheless,their applications are restricted by some challenging technical barriers,such as weak cycling stability and low poor-conductivity sulfur loading originated in notorious shuttling effect of polysulfide intermediates.Herein,free of any complicated compositing process,we design an interlayer of carbon fiber paper supported TiO2/TiO to impede the shuttle effect and enhance the electrical conductivity via physical isolation and chemical adsorption.Such a self-crystallized homogeneous interlayer,where TiO2/TiO enables absorbing lithium polysulfides(LiPSs)and TiO plays a key role of high-electron-conductivity exhibited ultrahigh capacities(1000 mA·h/g at 0.5 C and 900 mA·h/g at 1 C)and outstanding capacity retention rate(97%)after 100 cycles.Thus,our design provides a simple route to suppress the shuttle effect via self-derived evolution Li-S batteries.