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Volume 08
Innovative Energy & Research
ISSN: 2576-1463
Advanced Energy Materials 2019
July 11-12, 2019
July 11-12, 2019 | Zurich, Switzerland
21
st
International Conference on
Advanced Energy Materials and Research
Nitrogen free oxygen doped carbon nanotubes for oxygen reduction reaction
Roopathy Mohan, Arindam Modak
and
Alex Schechter
Ariel University, Israel
O
xygen reduction reaction (ORR) is pivotal in renewable energy technologies such as in fuel cells and metal-
air batteries. ORR is most fundamental and an important cathodic reaction of the electrochemical fuel cell.
However, owing to its sluggish nature at the cathode side of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), there
is an urgent demand for a cost-effective efficient catalyst with fast ORR kinetics. Though in practice, Pt-based
electrodes and N-doped carbon material shows promising ORR activity, the durability, cost and their preparation
methods restricts their wide commercialization. To address this issue, we developed metal and nitrogen-free carbon
nanotubes (CNTs) through simple and mild plasma treatment. Oxygen plasma treated CNTs were used as a model
for comparative study of oxygen reduction on single (SWCNT) and multi-walled nanotubes (MWCNT). Cold
oxygen plasma surface modification leads to chemical doping of oxygen functionalities into the sp
2
carbon structure
of the CNTs, charge redistribution around the doped heteroatom oxygen that promotes ORR activity. The defect sites
generated owing to oxygen dopant in CNTs was confirmed by Raman spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
(XPS) surface composition. Hence, the results indicate that plasma treated SWCNT are more effective ORR catalyst
compared to MWCNT due to the inherent structure of SWCNT that can access more defects and surface functional
groups than MWCNT. Interestingly, for the first time we explored the comparison of oxygen functional group doped
and defect induced SWCNT and MWCNT for ORR activity. Therefore, the catalytic property is dependent on the
dopant (oxygenated) concentration at the wall and is related to the increase in defects as well as ORR current. The
intriguing wall structure of SWCNT permits high functionality in oxygenated species and reinforce superior stability
in ORR than MWCNT.
Recent Publications
1. Subramanian P, Mohan R, Schechter A (2017) Unraveling the Oxygen-reduction sites in Graphitic-carbon Co-
N-C Type Electrocatalyst Prepared by Single-Precursor Pyrolysis, ChemCatChem 9:1969-1978
Biography
Roopathy Mohan has pursued her Master’s Degree in Chemistry from National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, India. Currently, she is a Doctoral student
in Fuel cell and Electrochemistry group, Ariel University, Israel under the supervision of Prof Alex Schechter. Her research work mainly focuses on the study of
carbon-based oxygen reduction electrocatalysts treated by cold plasma. She has her expertise in designing plasma assisted carbon supported metal free and
metal nitrogen and carbon (MNC) catalysts for electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction.
roopathy@gmail.comRoopathy Mohan et al., Innov Ener Res 2019, Volume 08