Carbon
Carbon
5 years ago

Structural analysis and oxygen reduction reaction activity in bamboo-like nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes containing localized nitrogen in nodal regions

Structural analysis and oxygen reduction reaction activity in bamboo-like nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes containing localized nitrogen in nodal regions
Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (N-CNTs) act as a metal-free catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), but improving the ORR activity of N-CNTs remains challenging due to a lack of structural information. The N-CNTs with higher nitrogen concentration (an average surface nitrogen concentrations, 14.3 at.%) than the N-CNTs fabricated by conventional chemical vapor deposition method were synthesized using a dielectric barrier discharge in high pressure nitrogen and the spatial distribution of nitrogen in the N-CNTs was demonstrated by transmission electron microscopy in conjunction with electron energy loss spectroscopy. Nitrogen atoms were found to be concentrated at nodal regions in the bamboo-like structure, at concentrations above 23 at.%. At the point of the ORR, the highest onset potential was observed in the N-CNTs due to relatively highly incorporated pyridine-like nitrogen.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S0008622317303457

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.