Bamboo-like Nitrogen-doped Carbon Nanotubes Research Articles

No cytotoxic nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes as efficient metal-free electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction in fuel cells

Bamboo-like nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) with different nitrogen content have been synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) under different reaction temperature of 600–900 °C. The butylamine and FeY have been used as precursor and catalyst, respectively. The electrocatalytic property of the NCNTs catalyst in oxygen reduction was examined by cyclic voltammetry. The results revealed that the NCNTs catalyst has higher catalytic activity than the commonly used Pt/C catalyst (Pt-CNTs, 20% of Pt/C, BASF), suggesting potential applications in fuel cells. On the other hand, the cytotoxic effects of NCNTs materials showed no cytotoxic to SPCA-1 cells, of which Pt-CNTs and CNTs particles indicated notably high cytotoxic. From these results, more application fields might be found for NCNTs except for as cathodic catalyst in fuel cells (FCs).

Synthesis and characterization of nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes by pyrolysis of melamine

The typical bamboo-like nitrogen doped carbon nanotubes (N-CNTs) have been successfully synthesized via pyrolysis of melamine (C3N6H6). The morphology of the samples is characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The synthesized nanotubes are structurally uniform. The nitrogen to carbon atomic ratio of N-CNTs determined by chemical element analysis is found to be 0.23. The corresponding binding energy of the samples is obtained through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and the characteristic infrared peaks are recorded by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The characterization of thermal stability is obtained by thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) under flowing argon. The photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of the product shows that all the emission peaks are located in the blue–violet wavelength region, which indicates that N-CNTs may have potential applications in nano-optical device fields. Moreover, the growth mechanism of N-CNTs is carefully discussed.

Decorating anode with bamboo-like nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes for microbial fuel cells

Anode electrodes play a key role in generating electricity from microbial fuel cells (MFCs) because they directly affect microbial activities. This communication reports the preparation of nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes with a bamboo-like nanostructure (Bamboo-NCNTs) by catalytic pyrolysis of ethylene diamine and application of the Bamboo-NCNTs as anode-modifying materials in MFCs. The Bamboo-NCNTs significantly improved performance of an MFC in current production and power output, and reduced internal resistance of the anode compared with conventional CNTs-modified and unmodified anodes. The improved performance could be attributed to the increased active sites induced by multiple joint structures and enhanced biocompatibility originated from nitrogen dopant.

The Synthesis of Nitrigen Doped Carbon Nanotube with Different Catalyst

Bamboo-like nitrogen-doped carbon (CNX) nanotubes have been synthesized by chemical vapor deposition at high reaction temperature of 850°C. The diethylamine has been used as carbon source and Fe/SBA-15 and Ni/SBA-15 have been used as molecular sieve catalyst. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) observations showed that the diameter and the wall thickness of CNx nanotubes were increased with the change of catalyst from Fe/SBA-15 to Ni/SBA-15.