Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanoparticles for Oxygen Reduction Prepared via a Crushing Method Involving a High Shear Mixer

Lei Shi; Tao Wu; Yiqing Wang; Jie Zhang; Gang Wang; Jinli Zhang; Bin Dai; Feng Yu

doi:10.3390/ma10091030

Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanoparticles for Oxygen Reduction Prepared via a Crushing Method Involving a High Shear Mixer

Materials (Basel). 2017 Sep 4;10(9):1030. doi: 10.3390/ma10091030.

Authors

Lei Shi¹, Tao Wu², Yiqing Wang³, Jie Zhang⁴, Gang Wang^{5

6

7}, Jinli Zhang⁴, Bin Dai⁸, Feng Yu^{9

10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. shilei70058@163.com.
² Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. wutao258@foxmail.com.
³ Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. wangyiqing_yes@sina.com.
⁴ Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. zhangjinli@tju.edu.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. wanggang@shzu.edu.cn.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Shihezi 832003, China. wanggang@shzu.edu.cn.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Xinjiang Phytomedicine Resources of Ministry of Education, School of Pharmacy, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832002, China. wanggang@shzu.edu.cn.
⁸ Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. db_tea@shzu.edu.cn.
⁹ Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China. yufeng05@mail.ipc.ac.cn.
¹⁰ Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Shihezi 832003, China. yufeng05@mail.ipc.ac.cn.
¹¹ Key Laboratory of Xinjiang Phytomedicine Resources of Ministry of Education, School of Pharmacy, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832002, China. yufeng05@mail.ipc.ac.cn.

Abstract

The disposal of agricultural wastes such as fresh banana peels (BPs) is an environmental issue. In this work, fresh BPs were successfully transformed into nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles (N-CNPs) by using a high shear mixer facilitated crushing method (HSM-FCM) followed by carbonization under Ar atmosphere. Ammonia-activated N-CNPs (N-CNPs-NH₃) were prepared via subsequent ammonia activation treatments at a high temperature. The as-prepared N-CNPs and N-CNPs-NH₃ materials both exhibited high surface areas (above 700 m²/g) and mean particle size of 50 nm. N-CNPs-NH₃ showed a relatively higher content of pyridinic and graphitic N compared to N-CNPs. In alkaline media, N-CNPs-NH₃ showed superior performances as an oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst (E₀ = -0.033 V, J = 2.4 mA/cm²) compared to N-CNPs (E₀ = 0.07 V, J = 1.8 mA/cm²). In addition, N-CNPs-NH₃ showed greater oxygen reduction stability and superior methanol crossover avoidance than a conventional Pt/C catalyst. This study provides a novel, simple, and scalable approach to valorize biomass wastes by synthesizing highly efficient electrochemical ORR catalysts.

Keywords: agricultural wastes; energy conversion; fresh banana peel; high shear mixer; oxygen reduction; porous carbon nanoparticles.