Taurine-doped conductive hydrogen as metal-free and binder-free electrocatalysts for efficient water oxidation

In recent years, heteroatom-doped carbon nanomaterials without metal possess great potential in oxygen evolution reactions (OER). However, the synthesis process is complex and the energy waste is large (i.e. calcination). Molecular electrocatalysts, as a new type of electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution, have attracted a wide amount of attention. In this work, taurine (TA) was selected as an OER electrocatalyst, and the catalytic activity of TA was studied via theoretical calculations and experiment. The DFT results show that the OH in the electrolyte tends to adsorb on C or N and takes away the H atom on the amino group to form uncoordinated N atoms in TA molecules. In addition, the TA molecule is fixed in a conductive hydrogel with a hydrophilic surface, and the conductive network on the hydrogel further accelerates charge and mass transfer in the OER process. Therefore, this work opens the way for further research on molecular electrocatalysts.