氮掺杂炭层包覆碳纳米管的组织结构调控及其氧还原催化活性

采用化学原位聚合合成聚吡咯涂覆碳纳米管,之后将其在氮气氛下热处理制备氮掺杂炭层包覆碳纳米管NCCNTs。利用该工艺,通过改变热处理温度,调控NC-CNTs组织结构和表面化学组成。比表面和孔结构分析显示,600,800和1 000℃热处理制备的氮掺杂碳纳米管NC-CNT600,NC-CNT800和NC-CNT1000的比表面积和孔体积依次显著增加,NC-CNT1000的比表面积和孔体积分别约是NC-CNT600的3倍和1.7倍。这是因碳纳米管表面聚吡咯层向氮掺杂炭层转化过程导致更多的微孔形成。然而,制备温度升高使NC-CNTs的氮含量降低,表面含氮官能团由吡咯型氮向吡啶型氮和石墨氮转化,NC-CNT1000含最高比例的石墨氮。作为无金属催化剂,NC-CNTs在碱性电解质条件下展现了明显的氧还原催化活性,但其氧还原活性并不与样品氮含量成正比。NC-CNT600和NC-CNT800的氧还原反应为两电子转移机制,而NCCNT1000表现为两电子和四电子转移混合机制,其展现出最高的氧还原催化活性和催化稳定性,这可能是其具有高的比表面积和孔体积,结合含氮官能团中高比例石墨氮的缘故。     

氮硫共掺杂碳纳米管的制备及其催化性能研究

采用非原位掺杂方式,将化学气相沉积法生长的碳纳米管阵列在含氮和含硫的气氛下,700~900℃退火,制备了氮硫共掺杂的碳纳米管(NS-CNT)。X射线光电子能谱仪测试证明,通过非原位掺杂方式成功实现了氮和硫在碳纳米管上的掺杂。通过电化学测试研究退火温度对氧还原反应催化活性的影响,电化学测试结果表明,800℃退火所制备样品的氧还原峰电位和起始电位分别为0.873,0.771V,表现出最好的催化活性。通过旋转环盘电极测试发现,样品NS-CNT-800在反应过程中的反应电子数为3.7,说明该样品的反应机理是二电子和四电子反应同时进行,但以四电子反应过程为主,并研究了样品的长时间稳定性。与商业燃料电池所用的Pt/C催化剂相比,NS-CNT-800的稳定性更好,用于燃料电池有明显的优势。     

氮掺杂活性炭及其载铂催化剂氧还原催化活性

采用化学原位聚合法制备聚吡咯/活性炭(AC)复合物,在惰性气氛进行热处理,制备了氮掺杂活性炭(NAC)。利用化学浸渍还原法制备AC和NAC载铂催化剂,并对比分析他们的氧还原催化性能。氮掺杂处理明显降低了活性炭的比表面积,但因其改善了活性炭水分散性和表面活性,铂在NAC表面沉积和分布较在AC载体表面更均匀。尤其经900℃炭化处理获得的氮掺杂活性炭NAC900,源于其微孔的高比表面积和含氮官能团共同作用,使铂粒子多以尺寸小于5 nm的粒子均匀沉积分布于载体表面,且铂担载量高。循环伏安曲线分析表明,与活性炭载铂催化剂(Pt-AC)相比,氮掺杂活性炭载铂催化剂(Pt-NAC900)的氧还原峰电位更正,氧还原峰电流为前者两倍,且峰电流随循环次数的衰减更低。结果表明,通过对传统炭材料活性炭进行氮掺杂处理,能够增强其载铂催化剂氧还原催化性能。     

氮掺杂石墨烯水凝胶薄膜制备及其氧还原催化性能研究

以氧化石墨烯分散液为前驱体、尿素为主要氮源,经水热还原和真空抽滤后制得不同氧还原催化活性的氮掺杂石墨烯水凝胶薄膜。采用扫描电子显微镜、X射线光电子能谱仪、激光拉曼光谱仪、循环伏安等手段对材料的形貌、结构和氧还原电催化性能进行表征。结果显示:制得的氮掺杂石墨烯水凝胶薄膜的含氮量在2.37~4.22%之间,其中氮元素主要以吡啶型和吡咯型形式存在。当氮含量为4.22%时,氮掺杂石墨烯水凝胶薄膜具有最小的氧还原起始电位,约为0.15 V,以及最大的极限电流密度,达2.75 m A/cm~2,显示出较好的氧还原催化性能。     

活化和氮掺杂炭层包覆碳纳米管载铂催化剂电催化性能研究

利用化学浸渍还原法,以原始和混酸活化碳纳米管,及聚苯胺改性制备的氮掺杂炭层包覆碳纳米管为载体,制备上述碳纳米管负载铂催化剂,研究比较它们作为质子交换膜燃料电池催化剂的电催化性能。透射电镜观察表明,以混酸活化碳纳米管为载体一定程度改善了铂粒子在碳管上的沉积形态和分散性,沉积的铂粒子大小约5~8nm,但铂粒子仍存在较明显的团聚现象;而因聚苯胺改性碳纳米管外层为均匀氮掺杂炭层,铂粒子能均匀分散沉积于氮掺杂层表面,其平均粒径约为2~4nm。电化学分析表明,混酸活化和氮掺杂炭层包覆碳纳米管都能够改善负载催化剂的电催化活性,尤其氮掺杂炭层包覆碳纳米管负载铂催化剂不仅具有最高氧还原活性,其负载催化剂同时展现了良好的循环稳定性。     

一步热解合成氮掺杂石墨烯载钴纳米粒子及其对氧还原反应的电催化性能

采用便捷的一步热解途径合成了氮掺杂石墨烯载钴纳米粒子(Co/NG),并表征了其结构、形貌和表面性质,进一步评价了Co/NG作为阴极催化剂对氧还原反应的电催化性能。透射电镜(TEM)和X射线粉末衍射(XRD)谱分析显示平均粒径21.4nm的Co纳米粒子较均匀地分散在三维多孔状石墨烯上。X射线光电子能谱(XPS)结果表明,Co/NG存在两类含氮组分,即吡啶氮和吡咯氮。电化学测试结果显示,Co/NG催化剂在碱性介质中对氧还原反应的起始还原电位约-0.049V,极限电流密度为5.9mA/cm~2。其电催化活性与商业化Pt/C相当。     

氮掺杂氧化石墨烯的制备及其氧还原催化性能研究

以腺嘌呤为掺杂氮源,以均苯三酸为辅助碳源,采用水热法对多层氧化石墨烯进行氮掺杂,在惰性气氛下煅烧得到氮掺杂氧化石墨烯(NGO),重点研究了腺嘌呤用量对产物的氧还原催化性能的影响。利用上海辰华电化学工作站,采用线性扫描伏安法对其氧还原催化性能进行测试分析,并利用Koutecky-Levich方程对其氧还原电子转移数进行计算。结果表明,以腺嘌呤作为氮源能够大幅度地提高氧化石墨烯的催化性能,当腺嘌呤用量为6 mmol时,所制得的氮掺杂氧化石墨烯NGO-3的催化性能最好,催化氧气还原以4e~-途径进行。     

活性炭纤维改性表面官能团脱硫作用

阐述几种表面官能团及其脱硫作用,概括出了4种主要的含氮官能团,即:类吡啶、类吡咯、类酰胺和铵盐,并评价其脱硫作用。通过文献总结出了活性炭材料的高温分解作用和在一定温度下含氧官能团与含氮官能团的分解作用,提出了改性含氮官能团的"两步走"方法:(1)在900℃高温热处理活性炭材料;(2)负载含氮物质,并在650℃左右进行活化改性,此种改性方法负载的含氮官能团数量相对更多。     

碳纳米管非金属掺杂对结构和性能影响的研究

通过讨论氮、硼、硅、氟等非金属原子掺杂的碳纳米管,对场电子发射特性的影响。介绍了掺杂在场电子发射、能源电池、气体传感器等领域的研究和应用。掺杂可以增加碳纳米管的缺陷,改变其电子结构。掺杂可使碳纳米管转变为n型半导体或是金属性导体,将提高场发射性能。同时,掺杂亦可使碳纳米管向P型半导体转变,这将不利于场发射性能改善。当场发射性能随着掺杂浓度升高而提高时,存在最佳掺杂浓度值,一旦超出,则场发射性能逐渐下降。因此,研究碳纳米管非金属掺杂具有重要的应用价值。     

氮掺杂碳纳米管的无金属催化剂合成和表征

采用爆炸辅助化学气相沉积法, 以碳纳米管(CNTs)作催化剂, 三聚氰胺作碳源和氮源, 无金属催化剂合成出氮掺杂碳纳米管(CN_x). 通过TEM、EDS、Mapping、XPS、Raman和TG测试手段对CN_x进行了表征. 结果表明, CNx具有竹节状结构, 其掺氮量高达17at%, 且氮元素分布均匀. 氮元素以石墨型和吡啶型掺杂在石墨层中, 由于大量氮元素掺杂造成纳米管石墨化程度降低, 抗氧化能力减弱.     

Growth of phthalocyanine doped and undoped nanotubes using mild synthesis conditions for development of novel oxygen reduction catalysts

Precious metal alloys have been the predominant electrocatalyst used for oxygen reduction in fuel cells since the 1960s. Although performance of these catalysts is high, they do have drawbacks. The two main problems with precious metal alloys are catalyst passivation and cost. This is why new novel catalysts are being developed and employed for oxygen reduction. This paper details the low temperature solvothermal synthesis and characterization of carbon nanotubes that have been doped with both iron and cobalt centered phthalocyanine. The synthesis is a novel low-temperature, supercritical solvent synthesis that reduces halocarbons to form a metal chloride byproduct and carbon nanotubes. Perchlorinated phthalocyanine was added to the nanotube synthesis to incorporate the phthalocyanine structure into the graphene sheets of the nanotubes to produce doped nanotubes that have the catalytic oxygen reduction capabilities of the metallo-phthalocyanine and the advantageous material qualities of carbon nanotubes. The cobalt phthalocyanine doped carbon nanotubes showed a half wave oxygen reduction potential of -0.050 ± 0.005 V vs Hg\HgO, in comparison to platinum's half wave oxygen reduction potential of -0.197 ± 0.002 V vs Hg\HgO.     

Oxidizing Vacancies in Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Enhance Air‐Cathode Activity

Oxidizing vacancies in nitrogen‐doped carbon have recently been reported to enhance the oxygen reaction activity of air cathodes, but their specific role has remained elusive and controversial. Herein, the critical role of oxidizing the vacancies in enhancing the oxygen reduction reaction for metal–air battery is identified with density functional theory. Deliberate introduction of oxygen‐enriched vacancies in nitrogen‐doped carbon is shown experimentally to provide superior oxygen reduction activity. In situ X‐ray powder diffraction gives direct observation of the oxygen reactions in a zinc–air battery catalyzed by vacancy‐enriched oxidized carbon; the intensity changes of the carbon peak show continuous chemisorption of oxygen intermediates on the carbon cathode during discharge. The air‐cathode performance is shown to exceed that with Pt/C+IrO₂ catalysts.     

Influence of substitutional doping on the electronic properties of carbon nanotubes with Stone Wales defects: density functional calculations

Abstract

In this work, we implemented density function theory to investigate the structural and the electronic properties of nitrogen doped single walled carbon nanotube under different orientations of Stone Wales defect. We have found that, the doped defected structures are more stable than the non-doped defected structures. Furthermore, doping defected carbon nanotubes with a nitrogen atom has significantly narrowed the band gap and slightly shifted the Fermi level toward the conduction band. Moreover, nitrogen substitution creates new band levels just above the Fermi level which exemplifies an n-type doping. However, the induced band gap is indirect band gap compared to direct band gap as in pristine carbon nanotubes. Furthermore, the electronic and structural properties of nitrogen doped carbon nanotube with Stone Wales defects is crucially affected by the dopant site as well as the orientations of Stone Wales defects.     

Electron field emission of a nitrogen-doped TiO(2) nanotube array

A nitrogen-doped titania nanotube array vertically aligned on a titanium substrate exhibits efficient electron field emission. Such a titania nanotube array shows very good stability at high field emission current (fluctuation <3% at field emission current of 160?μA within 4?h) and low turn-on and threshold fields (11.2 and 24.4?V?μm(-1), respectively) because of the coexistence of doped nitrogen and concomitant oxygen vacancies in titania nanotubes. This work demonstrates the possibility of converting pure titania nanotubes without field emission into a favorable and efficient one through the introduction of acceptor states and donor states both above the valence band maximum and below the conduction band minimum in the band gap of titania by the doped nitrogen and concomitant oxygen vacancies, respectively. Application of this doping concept to other transition metal oxides can be expected to broaden the scope of field emission materials.     

Active Sites and Mechanism of Oxygen Reduction Reaction Electrocatalysis on Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Materials

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is a core reaction for electrochemical energy technologies such as fuel cells and metal–air batteries. ORR catalysts have been limited to platinum, which meets the requirements of high activity and durability. Over the last few decades, a variety of materials have been tested as non‐Pt catalysts, from metal–organic complex molecules to metal‐free catalysts. In particular, nitrogen‐doped graphitic carbon materials, including N‐doped graphene and N‐doped carbon nanotubes, have been extensively studied. However, due to the lack of understanding of the reaction mechanism and conflicting knowledge of the catalytic active sites, carbon‐based catalysts are still under the development stage of achieving a performance similar to Pt‐based catalysts. In addition to the catalytic viewpoint, designing mass transport pathways is required for O₂. Recently, the importance of pyridinic N for the creation of active sites for ORR and the requirement of hydrophobicity near the active sites have been reported. Based on the increased knowledge in controlling ORR performances, bottom‐up preparation of N‐doped carbon catalysts, using N‐containing conjugative molecules as the assemblies of the catalysts, is promising. Here, the recent understanding of the active sites and the mechanism of ORRs on N‐doped carbon catalysts are reviewed.     

Nitrogen doping in carbon nanotubes

Nitrogen doping of single and multi-walled carbon nanotubes is of great interest both fundamentally, to explore the effect of dopants on quasi-1D electrical conductors, and for applications such as field emission tips, lithium storage, composites and nanoelectronic devices. We present an extensive review of the current state of the art in nitrogen doping of carbon nanotubes, including synthesis techniques, and comparison with nitrogen doped carbon thin films and azofullerenes. Nitrogen doping significantly alters nanotube morphology, leading to compartmentalised 'bamboo' nanotube structures. We review spectroscopic studies of nitrogen dopants using techniques such as X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy and Raman studies, and associated theoretical models. We discuss the role of nanotube curvature and chirality (notably whether the nanotubes are metallic or semiconducting), and the effect of doping on nanotube surface chemistry. Finally we review the effect of nitrogen on the transport properties of carbon nanotubes, notably its ability to induce negative differential resistance in semiconducting tubes.     

Oxygen reduction activity of carbon nitride supported on carbon nanotubes

Fuel cells offer an alternative to burning fossil fuels, but use platinum as a catalyst which is expensive and scarce. Cheap, alternative catalysts could enable fuel cells to become serious contenders in the green energy sector. One promising class of catalyst for electrochemical oxygen reduction is iron-containing, nanostructured, nitrogen-doped carbon. The catalytic activity of such N-doped carbons has improved vastly over the years bringing industrial applications ever closer. Stoichiometric carbon nitride powder has only been observed in recent years. It has nitrogen content up to 57% and as such is an extremely interesting material to work with. The electrochemical activity of carbon nitride has already been explored, confirming that iron is not a necessary ingredient for 4-electron oxygen reduction. Here, we synthesize carbon nitride on a carbon nanotube support and subject it to high temperature treatment in an effort to increase the surface area and conductivity. The results lend insight into the mechanism of oxygen reduction and show the potential for carbon nanotube-supported carbon nitride to be used as a catalyst to replace platinum in fuel cells.     

Co–Fe Alloy/N‐Doped Carbon Hollow Spheres Derived from Dual Metal–Organic Frameworks for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction

Metal–organic framework (MOF) composites have recently been considered as promising precursors to derive advanced metal/carbon‐based materials for various energy‐related applications. Here, a dual‐MOF‐assisted pyrolysis approach is developed to synthesize Co–Fe alloy@N‐doped carbon hollow spheres. Novel core–shell architectures consisting of polystyrene cores and Co‐based MOF composite shells encapsulated with discrete Fe‐based MOF nanocrystallites are first synthesized, followed by a thermal treatment to prepare hollow composite materials composed of Co–Fe alloy nanoparticles homogeneously distributed in porous N‐doped carbon nanoshells. Benefitting from the unique structure and composition, the as‐derived Co–Fe alloy@N‐doped carbon hollow spheres exhibit enhanced electrocatalytic performance for oxygen reduction reaction. The present approach expands the toolbox for design and preparation of advanced MOF‐derived functional materials for diverse applications.     

High-sensitivity NO2 detection with carbon nanotube-gold nanoparticle composite films

Composite films of single-walled carbon nanotube mesh doped with alkanethiol monolayer protected gold clusters (MPCs) have been investigated for ultrahigh sensitivity detection of nitrogen dioxide. The response to NO2 (measured as increased conductance) of the composite materials increased with MPC loading until a threshold MPC loading level was achieved, after which no further enhancement of sensor response is observed. The total of about ten droplets of MPC solution had been cast atop the SWNT mesh. The detection limit for NO2 has been improved 9.6-fold, to 4.6 ppb, compared with that obtained with pure SWNT sensors. Ultraviolet illumination helps to speed up the sensor recovery. All tests were done under ambient conditions.     

2D Free‐Standing Nitrogen‐Doped Ni‐Ni3S2@Carbon Nanoplates Derived from Metal–Organic Frameworks for Enhanced Oxygen Evolution Reaction

2D metal–organic frameworks (2D MOFs) are promising templates for the fabrication of carbon supported 2D metal/metal sulfide nanocomposites. Herein, controllable synthesis of a newly developed 2D Ni‐based MOF nanoplates in well‐defined rectangle morphology is first realized via a pyridine‐assisted bottom‐up solvothermal treatment of NiSO₄ and 4,4′‐bipyridine. The thickness of the MOF nanoplates can be controlled to below 20 nm, while the lateral size can be tuned in a wide range with different amounts of pyridine. Subsequent pyrolysis treatment converts the MOF nanoplates into 2D free‐standing nitrogen‐doped Ni‐Ni₃S₂@carbon nanoplates. The obtained Ni‐Ni₃S₂ nanoparticles encapsulated in the N‐doped carbon matrix exhibits high electrocatalytic activity in oxygen evolution reaction. A low overpotential of 284.7 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^?2 is achieved in alkaline solution, which is among the best reported performance of substrate‐free nickel sulfides based nanomaterials.