One Dimensional Graphitic Carbon Nitrides as Effective Metal-Free Oxygen Reduction Catalysts.

Muhammad Tahir,Asif Mahmood,Faheem K Butt,Imran Aslam,Yanglong Hou,Nasir Mahmood,Imran Shakir,M Tanveer,Chuanbao Cao,Jinghan Zhu,Faryal Idrees,Syed Rizwan

doi:10.1038/srep12389

Abstract

To explore the effect of morphology on catalytic properties of graphitic carbon nitride (GCN), we have studied oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance of two different morphologies of GCN in alkaline media. Among both, tubular GCN react with dissolved oxygen in the ORR with an onset potential close to commercial Pt/C. Furthermore, the higher stability and excellent methanol tolerance of tubular GCN compared to Pt/C emphasizes its suitability for fuel cells.

Highlights

A global energy crisis due to significant increase in industrial activities is a great challenge for future science
transmission electron microscope (TEM) studies show that as-synthesized TGCN has highly porous tube walls, which can accelerate the efficient transfer of mass in the electrode
The condensation reaction among heptazine or cyamelurine unites built a polymeric network that results in graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) at higher synthesis temperature

Summary

Introduction

A global energy crisis due to significant increase in industrial activities is a great challenge for future science. The nature of nitrogen species strongly effect the catalytic properties of carbon catalyst, de-convoluted N1s peaks of TGCN and GCNNF are presented in Fig. 2c,d, respectively.

Results

Conclusion