Nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon nanosheet network entrapped nickel nanoparticles as an efficient catalyst for electro-oxidation of glycerol

Abstract

The design and synthesis of nitrogen-doped (N-doped) carbon nanosheets network offer a tremendous electro-catalytic activity due to their high surface area and tunable porous structures for the development of direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs). In this work, nickel (Ni) nanoparticles entrapped onto the N-doped mesoporous carbon nanosheets network such as Ni–C-1, Ni–C-2, and Ni–C-3 are fabricated and characterized using SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS, and electrochemical methods. The physicochemical characterization of synthesized nanocomposite material confirmed that sodium chloride (NaCl) plays a major role in the formation of porous nanostructure during carbonization process. Under optimized conditions, all the above carbon samples are tested as potential electro-catalyst towards the electro-oxidation of glycerol for DAFCs application. Among them, the Ni–C-2 catalyst displays enhanced catalytic current density (~2.6 mA) and low onset oxidation potential (0.11 V) for electro-oxidation of glycerol than the Ni–C-1, and Ni–C-3 catalysts in alkaline electrolyte. In addition, the mesoporous carbon network structure containing Ni nanoparticles delivers substantial longer durability/robustness when compared to the conventional Pt/C-catalyst towards stable- and efficient electro-oxidation of glycerol for the first time. Thus, the obtained electro-catalytic performance revealed that Ni–C-2 is considered as a promising earth abundant non-noble low-cost catalyst material for DAFCs application.