TY - JOUR
T1 - Nitrogen-doped graphene catalysts
T2 - High energy wet ball milling synthesis and characterizations of functional groups and particle size variation with time and speed
AU - Zhuang, Shiqiang
AU - Nunna, Bharath Babu
AU - Boscoboinik, Jorge Anibal
AU - Lee, Eon Soo
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the financial support from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) as a research grant, and the sub‐grant of NJIT Site of National Science Foundation (Grant ID 1450182), as well as the technical and instrumental support from Materials Characterization Laboratory at Otto York Center at NJIT, Laboratory for Surface Modification at Rutgers University, Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Laboratory at Montclair State University, and Advanced Science Research Center at City University of New York. We would like to thank the administrative support from the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at NJIT. Also, we would like to thank Miss Lin Lei from NJIT for her contribution to the experiment.
Funding Information:
This research is carried out in part at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, which is supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE‐ SC0012704.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
PY - 2017/12
Y1 - 2017/12
N2 - Nitrogen-doped graphene (N-G) catalyst emerges as one of the promising non-platinum group metal (non-PGM) catalysts with the advantages of low cost, high oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity, stability, and selectivity to replace expensive PGM catalysts in electrochemical systems. In this research, nanoscale high energy wet (NHEW) ball milling is first investigated for the synthesis of N-G catalysts to make conventional problems such as sintering or localized overheating issues negligible. The successful synthesis of N-G catalysts with comparable catalytic performance to 10 wt% Pt/C by using this method has been published. This paper focuses on understanding the effect of grinding speed and grinding time on the particle size and chemical state of N-G catalysts through the physical and chemical characterization. The research result shows that (1) the final particle size, nitrogen doping percentage, and nitrogen bonding composition of synthesized N-G catalysts are predictable and controllable by adjusting the grinding time, the grinding speed, and other relative experimental parameters; (2) the final particle size of N-G catalysts could be estimated from the derived relation between the cracking energy density and the particle size of ground material in the NHEW ball milling process with specified experimental parameters; and (3) the chemical composition of N-G catalysts synthesized by NHEW ball milling is controllable by adjusting the grinding time and grinding speed.
AB - Nitrogen-doped graphene (N-G) catalyst emerges as one of the promising non-platinum group metal (non-PGM) catalysts with the advantages of low cost, high oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity, stability, and selectivity to replace expensive PGM catalysts in electrochemical systems. In this research, nanoscale high energy wet (NHEW) ball milling is first investigated for the synthesis of N-G catalysts to make conventional problems such as sintering or localized overheating issues negligible. The successful synthesis of N-G catalysts with comparable catalytic performance to 10 wt% Pt/C by using this method has been published. This paper focuses on understanding the effect of grinding speed and grinding time on the particle size and chemical state of N-G catalysts through the physical and chemical characterization. The research result shows that (1) the final particle size, nitrogen doping percentage, and nitrogen bonding composition of synthesized N-G catalysts are predictable and controllable by adjusting the grinding time, the grinding speed, and other relative experimental parameters; (2) the final particle size of N-G catalysts could be estimated from the derived relation between the cracking energy density and the particle size of ground material in the NHEW ball milling process with specified experimental parameters; and (3) the chemical composition of N-G catalysts synthesized by NHEW ball milling is controllable by adjusting the grinding time and grinding speed.
KW - ORR
KW - catalyst
KW - nanoscale high energy wet ball milling
KW - nitrogen doped graphene
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U2 - 10.1002/er.3821
DO - 10.1002/er.3821
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85033782019
SN - 0363-907X
VL - 41
SP - 2535
EP - 2554
JO - International Journal of Energy Research
JF - International Journal of Energy Research
IS - 15
ER -