Facile synthesis of mesoporous carbon material from treated kitchen waste for energy applications

Abstract

Biomass is abundant, easily available, and environmentally benign source of C which can be converted to scientifically useful materials by appropriate processing. This work is our attempt to convert the treated kitchen waste and chicken manure into valuable mesoporous carbons, and to check its suitability for energy applications. The samples have been prepared using hightemperature carbonization method, and the results are investigated for physical, chemical, and preliminary electrochemical studies. The synthesized porous carbons have mesoporous size distributions (10.29 nm) along with high-doped N content (9.2 at. %). An increase in the disordered porous structure and, hence, the number of active sites have been observed under field-emission scanning electron microscopy. In the electrochemical studies, a positive shift of − 0.104 V has been observed in the oxygen reduction onset potential of the kitchen waste and chicken manure-based mesoporous carbons as compared to the control sample. Interestingly, the electrocatalytic performance is even comparable to the commercial Pt/C-based electrocatalyst. These studies indicate the suitability of the designed electrocatalyst for clean energy devices. Our approach is also an effective way to dispose-off the kitchen waste by modifying it using poultry faeces, which is a remedy to manage large-scale organic waste.

Palladium nanoparticles supported on mesoporous biocarbon from coconut shell for ethanol electro-oxidation in alkaline media

“…The mesoporous structure is highly desirable for the faster diffusion of the electrolyte and larger molecules (such as ethanol) into the internal porous surface of carbons. Consequently, this structure provides numerous accessible active sites and facilitates efficient mass transport in the catalyst layers [36,37].…”

Modulation of Self‐Separating Molecular Catalysts for Highly Efficient Biomass Transformations

“…The phase separation and regeneration of the heterogeneous system induced the separation of the solid catalyst as well as the phase containing the final product of the catalytic reaction. Overall, the TBA 6 ‐P 2 W 17 ‐SO 3 H cluster proved to be a very efficient catalyst, giving an excellent yield and selectivity of 98.7 and 99.0 %, respectively, at 70 °C in 20 min, which appeared to be largely enhanced compared with other examples reported so far …”

Using Chicken Manure as a Source of Multi-Functionalities to Catalyse Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Clean Energy Devices

“…This analysis confirms the presence of different functional groups (O, N, P, and S, in particular) in the samples B and DB. These functionalities play an important role for the electrochemical applications of these samples as discussed further in the text [32]. Also, it is to be noted that the FTIR spectra of sample B exhibits sharper peaks as compared to sample DB, as it is directly functionalized with CM.…”