Issue 43, 2017, Issue in Progress

Improved oxygen reduction activity of carbon nanotubes and graphene through adenine functionalization

Abstract

Here we demonstrated a simple and straightforward way which can significantly improve the ORR activity of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and graphene through adenine functionalization. Adenine can interact with CNTs and graphene's carbon planes, which draw electrons from adenine to make the N species form pyrrolic and graphitic-N, similar to N species of N doped materials. The activity for the ORR at a potential of −0.25 V vs. SCE was improved by 4.5 and 1.8 times, and the half-wave potential was around −0.25 V and 0.22 V vs. SCE for adenine functionalized SWNTs and graphene, which is 120 and 90 mV lower than Pt–C, respectively. Even though the activity and onset potential is smaller than that of commercial Pt–C, the results provide a simple and straightforward way to improve the activity of carbon materials through molecular functionalization in exploring C-based metal free electrocatalysts for ORR with better fuel selectivity, better CO tolerance and stability.

Graphical abstract: Improved oxygen reduction activity of carbon nanotubes and graphene through adenine functionalization

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Mar 2017
Accepted
11 May 2017
First published
18 May 2017
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2017,7, 26722-26728

Improved oxygen reduction activity of carbon nanotubes and graphene through adenine functionalization

Y. Xu, C. Chen, M. Zhou, G. FU, Y. Zhao and Y. Chen, RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 26722 DOI: 10.1039/C7RA02865B

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements