调控碳材料的功函数以大幅度提升其电催化氧还原性能

氧的电催化还原反应是燃料电池装置与金属空气电池的阴极反应,具有重大的研究意义.在众多的非铂催化剂中,碳材料因其低廉的价格以及独特的物理化学性质受到了广泛的关注.自从发现氮掺杂的碳纳米阵列具有优异的氧还原活性后,不同类型的氮掺杂的碳也得到了深入研究.例如近年来兴起的由金属有机框架衍生的氮掺杂的碳材料,兼具丰富的氮位点及良好的三维结构.氮的掺杂对碳原子具有电子调控的作用,是其高氧还原活性的根本原因.本文对金属有机框架衍生的氮掺杂的碳材料进行进一步的电子结构的优化,以提升催化性能.功函是电子逸出表面所需的最少的能量,是材料的电子结构性质之一,其对氧还原反应的影响也有报道,早期以理论计算为基础,探究氧气分子在碳材料表面的解离能与氮掺杂的碳的表面功函的关系,后续则采用开尔文探针显微镜,直接测量了不同元素掺杂的碳表面功函,并建立起功函与氧还原动力学的线性关系.本文通过控制碳材料的功函来调节其电子结构.铯是一种经典的给电子物质,通过将电子注入到掺杂材料表面来降低其功函.因此,本文通过CsCO₃与2-甲基咪唑、Zn(NO₃)₂煅烧形成铯修饰的氮掺杂碳.电镜及XRD均观察不到所得材料中铯的存在,证明碳层中无大颗粒团聚的铯物种.EDS元素分布图表明,铯在碳层中呈原子级均匀分布.Raman谱结果表明,碳的G带发生明显的位置偏移,证明其面内电子结构发生了明显的改变.XPS结果证明铯成功与氮原子配位,通过铯氮键将电子注入到碳骨架.UPS则最终显示,经过铯的修饰,碳表面功函从4.25 eV下降到3.6 eV.表面功函的降低有利于氧气分子的解离,也调节OOH^*中间体的吸附,使其吸附的自由能更接近最优值.材料改性后氧还原性能明显提升,起始电位达到0.91 V vs RHE,半波电位达到0.83 V vs RHE,均接近商业Pt/C催化剂.氧还原反应的动力学电流密度随功函的降低而增大,验证了前人的结论.本文提供了一个较为新颖的电子结构调控策略,为设计新的氧还原催化剂提供了新的思路.     

Facile synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbon dots for Fe sensing and cellular imaging

A fast and facile approach to synthesize highly nitrogen (N)-doped carbon dots (N-CDs) by microwave-assisted pyrolysis of chitosan, acetic acid and 1,2-ethylenediamine as the carbon source, condensation agent and N-dopant, respectively, is reported. The obtained N-CDs are fully characterized by elemental analysis, transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction pattern, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV–vis absorption, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Doping N heteroatoms benefits the generation of N-CDs with stronger fluorescence emission. As the emission of N-CDs is efficiently quenched by Fe³⁺, the as-prepared N-CDs are employed as a highly sensitive and selective probe for Fe³⁺ detection. The detection limit can reach as low as 10 ppb, and the linear range is 0.010–1.8 ppm Fe³⁺. The as-synthesized N-CDs have been successfully applied for cell imaging and detecting Fe³⁺ in biosystem.     

A DFT study of formaldehyde adsorption on functionalized graphene nanoribbons

Density functional theory (DFT) based ab initio calculations were done to monitor the formaldehyde (CHOH) adsorptive behavior on pristine and Ni-decorated graphene sheet. Structural optimization indicates that the formaldehyde molecule is physisorbed on the pristine sheet via partly weak van der Waals attraction having the adsorption energy of about −15.7 kcal/mol. Metal decorated sheet is able to interact with the CHOH molecule, so that single Ni atoms prefer to bind strongly at the bridge site of graphene and each metal atom bound on sheet may adsorb up to four CHOH. The findings also show that the Ni decoration on graphene surface results in some changes in electronic properties of the sheet and its E_g is remained unchanged after adsorption of CHOH molecules. It is noteworthy to say that no bond cleavage was observed for the adsorption of CHOH on Ni-decorated graphene.     

Preparation and Characterization of Bhant Leaves‐derived Nitrogen‐doped Carbon and its Use as an Electrocatalyst for Detecting Ketoconazole

In this study, the electrocatalytic characteristics of nitrogen‐doped carbon (NDC) prepared from Clerodendrum Infortunatum L leaves on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) surface was evaluated with regards to its ability to detect the electroactive drug ketoconazole (KCZ). The NDC was prepared by carrying out a simple pyrolysis of dry powder of the leaves at 850 °C. The prepared NDC was characterized using field‐emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Brunauer‐Emmett‐Teller analysis, and was then used as an electrode material. The performance of the electrochemical KCZ sensor with the NDC‐modified glassy carbon electrode (NDC/GCE) was found to be optimal when using PBS buffer at pH 3 and a concentration of 0.1 mg/ml of NDC in the conjugate with Nafion polymer. Under these conditions, the NDC/GCE displayed a KCZ detection limit of 3 μM and a linear dependence of its response on KCZ concentration over a wide range of KCZ concentrations from 47 μM to 752 μM (R²=0.9742). These results confirmed the potential of NDC as an electrocatalyst.     

Opening Band Gap of Graphene by Chemical Doping: a First Principles Study

Single atom chemically doped graphene has been theoretically studied by density functional theory. The largest band gap, 0.62 eV, appears in arsenic atom doped graphene, then 0.60 eV comes by the tin atom, whose deformations can neither be ignored. It is also found that oxygen and iron single atom embedded graphene can open band gap by 0.52 and 0.54 eV, respectively. Moreover, doping O atom shows little distortion and high stability by charge redistribution. The band gap of Fe doped graphene is opened by orbital hybridization. The other heteroatom doped results are a little inferior to them.     

Preparation and formaldehyde sensitive properties of N-GQDs/SnO2 nanocomposite

Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have both the properties of graphene and semiconductor quantum dots, and exhibit stronger quantum confinement effect and boundary effect than graphene. In addition, the band gap of GQDs will transform to non-zero from 0 eV of graphene by surface functionalization, which can be dispersed in common solvents and compounded with solid materials. In this work, the SnO₂ nanosheets were prepared by hydrothermal method. As the sensitizer, nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) were prepared and composited with SnO₂ nanosheets. Sensing performance of pristine SnO₂ and N-GQDs/SnO₂ were investigated with HCHO as the target gas. The response (R_a/R_g) of 0.1% N-GQDs/SnO₂ was 256 for 100 ppm HCHO at 60 °C, which was about 2.2 times higher than pristine SnO₂ nanosheet. In addition, the material also had excellent selectivity and low operation temperature. The high sensitivity of N-GQDs/SnO₂ was attributed to the increase of active sites on materials surface and the electrical regulation of N-GQDs. This research is helpful to develop new HCHO gas sensor and expand the application field of GQDs.     

High performance of nitrogen-doped carbon-supported cobalt catalyst for the mild and selective synthesis of primary amines

A nitrogen-doped carbon-supported Co catalyst (Co/N-C-800) was discovered to be highly active for the reductive amination of carbonyl compounds with NH₃ and the hydrogenation of nitriles into primary amines using H₂ as the hydrogen source. Structurally diverse carbonyl compounds were selectively transformed into primary amines with good to excellent yields (82.8–99.6%) under mild conditions. The Co/N-C-800 catalyst showed comparable or better catalytic performance than the reported noble metal catalysts. The Co/N-C-800 catalyst also showed high activity for the hydrogenation of nitriles, affording the corresponding primary amines with high yields (81.7–99.0%). An overall reaction mechanism is proposed for the reductive amination of benzaldehyde and the hydrogenation of benzonitrile, which involves the same intermediates of phenylmethanimine and N-benzylidenebenzylamine.     

AFM analysis of piezoelectric nanogenerator based on n-diamond/n-ZnO heterojunction

We have demonstrated a high performance piezoelectric nanogenerator by scanning a diamond-coated conductive tip on ZnO nanorod arrays in an AFM system with contact-mode. About 95% ZnO nanorods generate piezoelectric current due to the excellent mechanical and electrical properties of the tip. The tip's nitrogen-doped diamond coating is the key factor to maintain effective physical contact and electrical contact to ZnO nanorods, leading to efficient piezoelectric generation. Rectifying n⁺-n heterojunction is formed when the nitrogen-doped diamond tip contacted with a ZnO nanorod, which plays an important role in accumulating and releasing piezoelectric charges of the piezoelectric nanogenerator. Our research indicates that conductive diamond film is an ideal electrode for this type of piezoelectric nanogenerator.     

氮掺杂还原氧化石墨烯负载铂催化剂的制备及甲醇电氧化性能

采用高温热解聚苯胺修饰的氧化石墨烯(PANI-GO),得到了氮掺杂的还原氧化石墨烯碳材料(N-RGO),以其负载Pt制备了Pt/N-RGO纳米结构电催化剂.采用透射电镜(TEM)、X射线光电子能谱(XPS)、X射线衍射(XRD)谱及拉曼光谱等技术对N-RGO和Pt/N-RGO的形貌及结构进行了表征,用循环伏安、计时电流等电化学技术研究了Pt/N-RGO电极催化剂对CO溶出反应和甲醇电氧化反应的催化性能.结果表明:高温热解PANIGO可同时实现GO的还原及其氮掺杂的过程,氮掺杂引起还原氧化石墨烯碳材料表面缺陷结构和导电性的增加;与相应的未掺杂氮样品Pt/RGO相比较,Pt/N-RGO样品上Pt颗粒的分散更均匀,显示出更强的抗CO毒化能力和更高的甲醇电氧化催化活性及稳定性.     

阳极氧化TiN薄膜制备N掺杂纳米TiO2薄膜及其可见光活性

室温下通过电泳沉积(EPD)的方法在Ti片表面制备TiN薄膜, 然后对TiN薄膜进行阳极氧化得到N掺杂多孔纳米结构的TiO2薄膜. 利用X射线衍射(XRD), X射线光电子能谱(XPS), 扫描电子显微镜(SEM)及光电化学方法对得到的薄膜进行表征. XRD测试结果表明, 经过阳极氧化并在350 ℃空气气氛中退火1 h的薄膜中存在锐钛矿晶型的TiO2. XPS的结果表明, 样品中的N元素取代部分O, 且N的摩尔分数为0.95%. SEM显示, 经阳极氧化后薄膜表面出现多孔纳米结构. 光电化学测试结果显示, 阳极氧化提高了N掺杂TiO2薄膜在可见光下的光电响应. 经阳极氧化并热处理的薄膜在0 V电位及可见光照射下光电流密度为2.325 μA·cm-2, 而单纯热处理的薄膜在相同条件下光电流密度仅为0.475 μA·cm-2. 阳极氧化得到纳米多孔结构提高了N掺杂纳米TiO2薄膜的表面积, 从而对可见光的响应增大.