Unveiling N-doped carbon nitride aerogel for efficient electrocatalytic water splitting application

Abstract

The porous carbon nitrides (CN) aerogel was developed with a sol-gel method followed by ambient pressure drying technique and calcination, where catalysts were deposited on nickel foam for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER). However, the low conductivity of carbon structure and an expensive production process hinder the practical approach of carbon nitrides as catalysts. Herein, nickel foam-supported N-doped porous carbon aerogel samples are constructed with high catalytic activity toward HER in an alkaline medium. As-prepared carbon nitride aerogel (CN@800) has a high specific surface area (570 cm².g^− 1), and a large pore size distribution (180 nm). Performance of abundant CN active sites and the synergistic effect of N-doped porous carbon aerogels: the CN exhibits small overpotentials of CN@200, CN@600, and CN@800 of -206, -218, and − 180 mV at 10 mA.cm² with Tafel values of 109, 120, and 107 mV.dec^− 1 towards HER, respectively. Compared to the conventional approach, our electrocatalyst of sol-gel-based porous carbon nitrate aerogel can deliver high hydrogen production efficiency.