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Defect-controlled Fe-N-doped carbon nanofiber by ball-milling for oxygen reduction reaction

  • Catalysis, Reaction Engineering
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Abstract

We demonstrate that control of the defect level on carbon materials is effective for enhancing the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance of nonprecious-metal catalysts. Vapor-grown carbon nanofiber (VGCNF) with high crystallinity and high electronic conductivity was chosen as the substrate of our ORR catalysts. To induce defects on the VGCNF, it was subjected to ball-milling for various controlled times, yielding BMx-VGCNF (x represents the ball-milling time, 0-6 h). The defect level introduced on the VGCNF was effectively regulated by controlling the ball-milling time. Although the density of defect sites increased with increasing ball-milling time, the surface area was high-est in BM2-VGCNF. Nonprecious-metal ORR catalysts (BMx-Fe-VGCNF) were prepared by NH3 pyrolysis of Fe-ion-adsorbed BMx-VGCNF. The ball-milling of VGCNF was effective to introduce nitrogen onto the catalyst. In particular, the controlled ball-milling was important to generate highly active sites on the catalyst surface. Among the catalysts studied, BM2-Fe-VGCNF exhibited the best ORR performance, which was 2.5-times greater than that of BMx-Fe-VGCNF (x=4, 6).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MIST) (2018M1A2A2061975, 2018M1A2A2061982, 2018R1A4A1025528, 2019R1A6A3A01096629, 2019R1A2C1004151). It was also supported by Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI), Jeonju branch. TEM samples were analyzed by Transmission Electron Microscope (JEM-2010, JEOL) installed in the Center for University-Wide Research Facilities (CURF) at Jeonbuk National University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, School of Semiconductor and Chemical Engineering, Solar Energy Research Center, Jeonbuk National University, JeonJu, Jeonbuk, 54896, Korea

    Yeonsun Sohn, Dong-gun Kim, Ji Ho Lee, Sujin Lee, In Seon Hwang, Soo-Hyoung Lee & Pil Kim

  2. Fuel Cell Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, 02792, Korea

    Sung Jong Yoo

  3. Division of Energy & Environment Technology, KIST School, University of Science and Technology (UST), Seoul, 02792, Korea

    Sung Jong Yoo

  4. KHU-KIST Department of Converging Science and Technology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, 02447, Korea

    Sung Jong Yoo

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  1. Yeonsun Sohn
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  2. Dong-gun Kim
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  3. Ji Ho Lee
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  4. Sujin Lee
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  5. In Seon Hwang
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  6. Soo-Hyoung Lee
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  7. Sung Jong Yoo
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  8. Pil Kim
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Correspondence to Pil Kim.

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Sohn, Y., Kim, Dg., Lee, J.H. et al. Defect-controlled Fe-N-doped carbon nanofiber by ball-milling for oxygen reduction reaction. Korean J. Chem. Eng. 37, 938–945 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-020-0522-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-020-0522-5

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