Understanding the effect of functional groups on carbon nanotube towards oxygen reduction reaction. (June 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chen, Jiuting; Li, Cong; Chen, Yuran
• Is Part Of: Materials today energy. Volume 16(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-06
• Subjects: MWCNTs -- Annealing -- Oxygen reduction reaction -- Functional groups; Energy development -- Periodicals; Energy industries -- Periodicals; Power resources -- Periodicals; Energy policy -- Periodicals; Energy development; Energy industries; Energy policy; Power resources; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 621.042
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mtener.2020.100400
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2468-6069

Abstract

Abstract: Carbon-based catalyst towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has been investigated for years, one facile and typical strategy reported by a lot of literature to improve the ORR activity was the high-temperature annealing. Our group has previously studied the annealing process and confirmed the removal of oxygen-containing functional groups (OFGs) would bring benefits to ORR activity. However, the removal of which kind(s) of functional group will influence the ORR activity most has not been verified. In this work, a two-step oxidation method was applied by a weak oxidation treatment using H2 O2 firstly and selectively adjusting the ratio of phenol and carbonyl/quinone. Then the ORR activity of the sample was carefully investigated by gradually removing specific OFGs with a rapid annealing process. The results suggested that the topological defects from the removal of phenol, carbonyl/quinone is the key to enhance the ORR activity of MWCNTs. Highlights: P2 O5 /DMSO could effectively adjust the ratio fo phenol and carbonyl/quinone on MWCNTs. Removing phenol as well as carbonyl/quinone will increase the ORR activity. The topological defects rather than the hole defects benefits the ORR activity.