Preuss, Kathrin, Kannuchamy, Vasanth Kumar, Marinovic, Adam, Isaacs, Mark, Wilson, Karen, Abrahams, Isaac and Titirici, Maria-Magdalena (2016). Bio-inspired carbon electro-catalysis for the oxygen reduction reaction. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 25 (2), pp. 228-235.
Abstract
We report the synthesis, characterisation and catalytic performance of two nature-inspired biomass-derived electro-catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells. The catalysts were prepared via pyrolysis of a real food waste (lobster shells) or by mimicking the composition of lobster shells using chitin and CaCO3 particles followed by acid washing. The simplified model of artificial lobster was prepared for better reproducibility. The calcium carbonate in both samples acts as a pore agent, creating increased surface area and pore volume, though considerably higher in artificial lobster samples due to the better homogeneity of the components. Various characterisation techniques revealed the presence of a considerable amount of hydroxyapatite left in the real lobster samples after acid washing and a low content of carbon (23%), nitrogen and sulphur (<1%), limiting the surface area to 23 m2/g, and consequently resulting in rather poor catalytic activity. However, artificial lobster samples, with a surface area of ≈200 m2/g and a nitrogen doping of 2%, showed a promising onset potential, very similar to a commercially available platinum catalyst, with better methanol tolerance, though with lower stability in long time testing over 10,000 s.
Publication DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jechem.2016.01.001 |
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Divisions: | College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > School of Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering > Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI) |
Additional Information: | © 2016, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Funding: EU for the Intra European Marie Curie Research Fellowship (PIEF-GA-2013-623227) |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | carbonisation,biomass-derived carbons,oxygen reduction reaction,fuel cells,electro-catalysis |
Publication ISSN: | 2050-7496 |
Last Modified: | 05 Aug 2024 16:51 |
Date Deposited: | 09 Feb 2016 11:40 |
Full Text Link: | |
Related URLs: |
https://www.sci ... 0024?via%3Dihub
(Publisher URL) |
PURE Output Type: | Article |
Published Date: | 2016-03-01 |
Published Online Date: | 2016-01-13 |
Accepted Date: | 2015-12-09 |
Submitted Date: | 2015-10-23 |
Authors: |
Preuss, Kathrin
Kannuchamy, Vasanth Kumar Marinovic, Adam Isaacs, Mark Wilson, Karen ( ![]() Abrahams, Isaac Titirici, Maria-Magdalena |