Electrochemical Synthesis of Polyaniline on Onion-like Carbon Nanoparticles Using the RoDSE Technique

Abstract

The world's main source of energy is fossil fuels, but fossil fuels are finite resources and can also irreparably harm the environment. According to the United States Energy Information Administration, the burning of fossil fuels was responsible for 76 percent of the US greenhouse gas emissions. Fossil fuels not only pollute the environment, but also affect human health. My research focuses on making a catalyst that is economical, efficient and above all friendly to the environment. The oxygen reduction reaction is an important reaction for energy conversion systems, such as fuel cells. The fuel cells generate electricity directly by electrochemically reducing oxygen and oxidizing fuel in water as the only by-product. Onion-like carbon (OLC) are used as a catalytic support for fuel cell applications due to their high conductivity and high surface-to-volume ratio. The combination of carbon compounds with conductive polymers results in new materials and devices with possible practical applications. In recent decades, several studies have been conducted on nitrogen doped structures in carbon materials for the oxygen reduction reaction. In my research we obtain OLC from nanodiamonds (ND) through a pyrolysis process. After this process, we oxidize the OLCs using sulfuric acid and potassium permanganate. These particles are then polymerized using the aniline and pyrrole monomers to dope the OLCs with nitrogen. These particles are characterized using the following techniques, Raman, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). After characterizing them, the oxygen reduction reaction experiments are carried out. In the Raman, the characteristic bands of carbon materials were obtained, the D, G and double D bands. In the FTIR, vibrations of the C-N bonds were obtained at 1299 cm-1. In future works we will be adding to the particles nonprecious metals like cobalt and iron for oxygen reduction reaction, and characterize this samples using synchrotron techniques.