The Effects of a Low-Level Boron, Phosphorus, and Nitrogen Doping on the Oxygen Reduction Activity of Ordered Mesoporous Carbons

Abstract

In order to elucidate the role of B, N, and P dopants in carbon materials on the kinetics of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and to provide a fair comparison of the effects of each dopant, a series of ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) with low concentration of heteroatoms (< 1 at%) has been prepared. Doped OMCs were characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and N-2 physisorption measurements. Comparative study of the ORR activity of these materials in alkaline solution was performed using rotating disk electrode voltammetry. The experiments evidenced that, compared to non-doped OMC, charge transfer kinetics was improved independently on the nature of the heteroatom. The decrease of the ORR overvoltage and the increase of the mass activity upon doping are similar for B and P and less prominent for N. On the other hand, OMCs doped with low levels of B and N were found to be selective for O-2 reduction to peroxide, while for P-doped OMCs, the apparent number of electrons consumed per O-2 molecule was up to 3.1. Experimental measurements were complemented by density functional theory (DFT) calculations

Surface‐Group‐Oriented, Condensation Cyclization‐Driven, Nitrogen‐Doping Strategy for the Preparation of a Nitrogen‐Species‐Tunable, Carbon‐Material‐Supported Pd Catalyst

“…It is worth nothing that the BE positively shifts to 285.41 eV and 285.46 eV in Pd/NC (25 %)‐600 and Pd/NC (25 %)‐800 (Figure c and 6d), whereas negatively shifts to 285.25 eV and 285.13 eV in Pd/NC (25 %) and Pd/NC(H 2 O 2 ) (Figure b and 6e). For the former, similar findings were reported by Yu, Pašti and our previous work, in which heteroatoms may lead to a net positive charge on the carbon atoms adjacent to the heteroatoms due to spinning density and/or atomic charge density redistribution in neighboring carbon atoms. For the latter, the negative shifts may be attributed to the electron donating capability of the different N species adjacent to C atoms.…”

Altering the reactivity of pristine, N- and P-doped graphene by strain engineering: A DFT view on energy related aspects

“…When it comes to P-doped graphene, we find that the total magnetization is dependent on the strain level inflicted upon the supercell (Table S1). For the no-strain case, the total magnetization of P-graphene is found to be 0.97 μB, similar to the available literature data [47,51,52]. For +3 and +5% cases, the total magnetization of P-graphene drops to zero.…”

A Novel Method of Synthesizing Boron‐doped Carbon Catalysts

“…The right shift of G band suggests that the annealing treatment promotes the ordering degree of the graphite phase. An additional band located around 1,520 cm −1 is assigned to the appearance of the amorphous carbon , . The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of D band and the intensity of amorphous carbon band decrease consecutively, denoting that ordering degree of amorphous graphite increases and the number of defect sites dwindles .…”