Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Zhang, Baofang
• Chen, Renlian
• Yang, Zefan
• Chen, Yingxin
• Zhou, Lihua
• Yuan, Yong

Titel

Melamine-assisted synthesis of paper mill sludge-based carbon nanotube/nanoporous carbon nanocomposite for enhanced electrocatalytic oxygen reduction activity

Ist Teil von

• International journal of hydrogen energy, 2019-11, Vol.44 (59), p.31094-31103

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Quelle

Elsevier ScienceDirect Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Developing efficient and cheap electrocatalysts as substitutes for commercial Pt/C in the oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)is extremely necessary. Herein, paper mill sludge (PMS) was utilized to produce iron, nitrogen and sulfur co-doped carbon nanotube/nanoporous carbon nanocomposite (PMS-CNT/C) by pyrolysis. PMS-CNT/C-b, one of as-prepared PMS-CNT/C exhibited excellent oxygen reduction reaction activity with an onset potential of 0.99 V vs. RHE and half-wave potential of 0.77 V vs. RHE, which was similar to the commercial Pt/C catalyst (onset potential of 0.99 V vs. RHE and half-wave potential of 0.76 V vs. RHE). It had longer-term stability and higher methanol tolerance in alkaline medium than Pt/C. Moreover, the new catalyst also exhibited excellent catalytic performance in neutral solution. The energy output of microbial fuel cells loaded with PMS-CNT/C-b catalyst was also higher than that of commercial Pt/C under neutral condition. The excellent ORR performance of PMS-CNT/C-b was due to the carbon nanotube/nanoporous structure and the synergistic effect of abundant N groups, iron nitrides and thiophene-S. The formation of CNTs in the carbon nanotube/nanoporous carbon nanocomposite was mainly attributed to melamine, which was added into PMS and was at first just considered as a nitrogen source to develop N-doped PMS-based catalysis in this work. The synthesis of paper mill sludge-based carbon nanotube/nanoporous nanocomposite and its excellent ORR activity will make the new catalyst a promising cathodic electrocatalyst alternative for fuel cells. •Paper mill sludge (PMS) was utilized to fabricate Fe, N and S co-doped carbon materials.•Melamine was directly added into PMS to assist the formation of CNTs.•The PMS-based nanocomposites exhibited excellent catalytic activity for ORR.•A green and efficient strategy was developed for the reuse of PMS.