Upper Limit of Nitrogen Content in Carbon Materials |
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Authors: | Dr. Shiguo Zhang Prof. Seiji Tsuzuki Dr. Kazuhide Ueno Prof. Kaoru Dokko Prof. Masayoshi Watanabe |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Yokohama National University, 79‐5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya‐ku, Yokohama 240‐8501 (Japan) http://mwatalab.xsrv.jp/;2. Research Initiative of Computational Sciences (RICS), Nanosystem Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 1‐1‐1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305‐8568 (Japan) |
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Abstract: | Nitrogen‐doped carbon materials (NDCs) play an important role in various fields. A great deal of effort has been devoted to obtaining carbon materials with a high nitrogen content; however, much is still unknown about the structure of the nitrogen‐doped materials and the maximum nitrogen content possible for such compounds. Here, we demonstrate an interesting relationship between the N/C molar ratio and the N content of NDCs. The upper limit for the nitrogen content of NDCs that might be achieved was estimated and found to strongly depend on the carbonization temperature (14.32 wt % at 1000 °C and 21.66 wt % at 900 °C), irrespective of the precursor or preparation conditions. Simulations suggest that, especially in the carbon architectures obtained at high temperatures, nitrogen atoms are always located on separate hexagon moieties in a graphitic configuration, thereby yielding a critical N/C molar ratio very close to the value estimated from the experimental results. |
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Keywords: | carbon carbon nitride materials science nitrogen |
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