TY - JOUR
T1 - Chemical activation of nitrogen-doped carbon derived from chitosan with ZnCl2 to produce a high-performance gas diffusion-type oxygen electrode
AU - Okuda, Ryunosuke
AU - Nakano, Kota
AU - Suematsu, Koichi
AU - Watanabe, Ken
AU - Ilnicka, Anna
AU - Łukaszewicz, Jerzy P.
AU - Shimanoe, Kengo
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by ECSJ. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse of the work in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. [DOI: 10.5796/electrochemistry.20-00121].
PY - 2021/1/5
Y1 - 2021/1/5
N2 - In this study, we fabricated nitrogen-doped carbons (NDCs) derived from chitosan using a new synthesis method that combines the thermal decomposition of chitosan and chemical activation with ZnCl2. Then, the effect of the activation temperature on the microstructure of NDCs was investigated. The performance of a gas diffusion-type oxygen electrode (GDE) using the obtained NDCs was evaluated using an oxygen reduction reaction in an alkaline solution. Finally, the relationship between the microstructure of NDCs and electrode performance was discussed. The surface area and total pore volume of the fabricated NDCs tended to increase with activation temperature, despite decreasing nitrogen content. Additionally, we found that the overpotential of GDE decreases with an increase in specific surface area and total pore volume. The microstructure of the NDCs was found to play a key role in improving the performance of GDEs. Furthermore, the GDE composed of fabricated NDCs with a high surface area and high pore volume exhibited a reduced activation overpotential than that of conventional Pt-loaded carbon black.
AB - In this study, we fabricated nitrogen-doped carbons (NDCs) derived from chitosan using a new synthesis method that combines the thermal decomposition of chitosan and chemical activation with ZnCl2. Then, the effect of the activation temperature on the microstructure of NDCs was investigated. The performance of a gas diffusion-type oxygen electrode (GDE) using the obtained NDCs was evaluated using an oxygen reduction reaction in an alkaline solution. Finally, the relationship between the microstructure of NDCs and electrode performance was discussed. The surface area and total pore volume of the fabricated NDCs tended to increase with activation temperature, despite decreasing nitrogen content. Additionally, we found that the overpotential of GDE decreases with an increase in specific surface area and total pore volume. The microstructure of the NDCs was found to play a key role in improving the performance of GDEs. Furthermore, the GDE composed of fabricated NDCs with a high surface area and high pore volume exhibited a reduced activation overpotential than that of conventional Pt-loaded carbon black.
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U2 - 10.5796/ELECTROCHEMISTRY.20-00121
DO - 10.5796/ELECTROCHEMISTRY.20-00121
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85099693972
SN - 1344-3542
VL - 89
SP - 36
EP - 42
JO - Electrochemistry
JF - Electrochemistry
IS - 1
ER -