Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanoparticles for Oxygen Reduction Prepared via a Crushing Method Involving a High Shear Mixer

Abstract

Abstract:The disposal of agricultural wastes such as fresh banana peels (BPs) is an environmental issue. In this work, fresh BPs were successfully transformed into nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles (N-CNPs) by using a high shear mixer facilitated crushing method (HSM-FCM) followed by carbonization under Ar atmosphere. Ammonia-activated N-CNPs (N-CNPs-NH 3 ) were prepared via subsequent ammonia activation treatments at a high temperature. The as-prepared N-CNPs and N-CNPs-NH 3 materials both exhibited high surface areas (above 700 m 2 /g) and mean particle size of 50 nm. N-CNPs-NH 3 showed a relatively higher content of pyridinic and graphitic N compared to N-CNPs. In alkaline media, N-CNPs-NH 3 showed superior performances as an oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst (E 0 = −0.033 V, J = 2.4 mA/cm 2 ) compared to N-CNPs (E 0 = 0.07 V, J = 1.8 mA/cm 2 ). In addition, N-CNPs-NH 3 showed greater oxygen reduction stability and superior methanol crossover avoidance than a conventional Pt/C catalyst. This study provides a novel, simple, and scalable approach to valorize biomass wastes by synthesizing highly efficient electrochemical ORR catalysts.

Defective ZnS nanoparticles anchored in situ on N-doped carbon as a superior oxygen reduction reaction catalyst

“…Platinum (Pt)-based materials are well known for their electrocatalytic activity toward ORR [9][10][11][12] . However, Pt-based catalysts are expensive, have slow electron-transfer kinetics, and relatively poor stability, which limits their commercialization for use in fuel cells [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] . Consequently, the design and preparation of low-cost and high-performance electrocatalysts for the ORR is an active and promising field of research.…”

Enhanced Oxygen Reduction Reaction by In Situ Anchoring Fe2N Nanoparticles on Nitrogen-Doped Pomelo Peel-Derived Carbon

“…Therefore, the valorization of biomass can potentially reduce the use of fossil fuels while mitigating greenhouse gas emissions [ 1 ]. Biomass wastes, such as bananas [ 2 , 3 ], tea leaves [ 4 ], poplar catkins [ 5 ], gingko leaves [ 6 ], coconut shells [ 1 ], eggshell membranes [ 7 ], and sodium alginate [ 8 ], have been increasingly used for fabricating carbon materials. Biomass raw materials can be used to synthesize carbon materials with a high surface area and porous structure.…”

Nitrogen and Sulfur Co‐Doped Graphene‐Like Carbon from Industrial Dye Wastewater for Use as a High‐Performance Supercapacitor Electrode

“…The nitrogen spectrum of the N,S‐GLC was deconvoluted into four peaks at 398.3, 400, 401, and 403.3 eV, which were assigned to pyridine‐N, pyrrolic‐N, graphitic‐N, and pyridine‐N functional groups, respectively (Figure d) . The sulfur spectrum also contained four peaks (Figure e); the peaks at 164.2, 165.28, 168.4, and 169.49 eV can be assigned to the CSC, CS, and sulfur oxide functional groups, respectively .…”