Carbon nanotubes as catalysts for direct carbohydrazide fuel cells. (August 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Qi, Ji; Benipal, Neeva; Chadderdon, David J.; Huo, Jiajie; Jiang, Yibo; Qiu, Yang; Han, Xiaotong; Hu, Yun Hang; Shanks, Brent H.; Li, Wenzhen
• Is Part Of: Carbon. Volume 89(2015)
• Page Start: 142
• Page End: 147
• Publication Date: 2015-08
• Subjects: Carbon -- Periodicals; Carbone -- Périodiques; Koolstof; Toepassingen; Electronic journals; 546.681
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2015.03.029
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0008-6223

Abstract

Abstract: As an alternative to potentially carcinogenic hydrazine for fuel cell application, carbohydrazide, which contains lone electron pairs on nitrogen atoms and readily activated N–H bonds, can be catalytically oxidized over metal-free carbon catalysts due to the high equilibrium electromotive force (1.65 V) of its oxidation reaction. Carbon nanotubes are found to electrochemically catalyze the carbohydrazide oxidation reaction more efficiently than carbon black and multi-layer graphene in alkaline media. With carbon nanotubes as the anode catalyst, anode metal-catalyst-free and completely metal-catalyst-free direct carbohydrazide anion exchange membrane fuel cells are shown here to generate a peak power density of 77.5 mW cm −2 and 26.5 mW cm −2, respectively.