Synthesis of Metal-Free Carbon Aerogel with Nitrogen-Doped from Pyrolysis of Cellulose Aerogels Based on Coir Fibers Using Ammonia-Urea System as Electrocatalyst of Oxygen Reduction Reaction for Cathode in Seawater Batteries

Abstract:

Performance of seawater batteries is still limited by the sluggish nature of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). One way to optimize the performance of the battery is by utilizing an electrocatalyst with the ability to increase the ORR rate of reaction. Nitrogen-doped carbon aerogel based on coir fiber is one of the alternatives because of its excellent electrocatalytic performance and was made from an abundant material. Carbon aerogel was obtained from pyrolyzing coir fiber-based aerogel cellulose. Nitrogen atom structure in carbon aerogel was affected by the temperature of cellulose aerogel pyrolysis. Pyridinic N content in the Nitrogen-doped carbon aerogel has effective for the activity of the ORR. The electrocatalytic performance of the carbon aerogel synthesized from coir fiber with nitrogen doping at the pyrolysis temperature of 600 °C was investigated in this study. The research process began with the synthesis of cellulose aerogel using urea-ammonia crosslinking precursor. Next, cellulose aerogel was pyrolyzed at 600 °C to create carbon aerogel. FTIR, XRD, CV, LSV, and LP were used to characterize the samples. The carbon aerogel was N-doped with pyridinic N, according to an analysis of the FTIR spectra. The carbon aerogel shows 4-electron ORR with kinetic current density (i_k) of 0.74 mA/cm² and current density (i_o) of 0.583 μA/cm², according to electrochemical performance analysis in 3.5% NaCl as electrolyte.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 971)
• Pages: 55-63
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/p-PC7nGO
• Online since: December 2023
• Authors: Susanto Susanto, Taris Farizan Rochman, Muhammad Rivaldy Kamandanu, Tantular Nurtono, Widiyastuti Widiyastuti, Heru Setyawan*
• Keywords: Carbon Aerogel, Coir Fiber, Oxygen Reduction Reaction, Seawater Battery

References

[1] Y. Li and J. Lu, "Metal-Air Batteries: Will They Be the Future Electrochemical Energy Storage Device of Choice?," ACS Energy Lett, vol. 2, no. 6, p.1370–1377, 2017.

DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00119

[2] H. Kobashi, M. Oshitani, and G. S. Y. Corporation, "Seawater Activated Batteries : Magnesium," Magnesium, p.156–164, 2009.

DOI: 10.1016/b978-044452745-5.00123-4

[3] K. Kakaei, M. D. Esrafili, and A. Ehsani, "Oxygen Reduction Reaction," Interface Science and Technology, vol. 27, p.203–252, 2019.

DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-814523-4.00006-X

[4] M. Fauziyah, W. Widiyastuti, and H. Setyawan, "Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Aerogels Prepared by Direct Pyrolysis of Cellulose Aerogels Derived from Coir Fibers Using an Ammonia-Urea System and Their Electrocatalytic Performance toward the Oxygen Reduction Reaction," Ind Eng Chem Res, vol. 59, no. 49, 2020.

DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.0c03771

[5] G. Lin, R. Ma, Y. Zhou, Q. Liu, X. Dong, and J. Wang, "KOH activation of biomass-derived nitrogen-doped carbons for supercapacitor and electrocatalytic oxygen reduction," Electrochim Acta, vol. 261, p.49–57, 2018.

DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2017.12.107

[6] A. N. Malkova, N. A. Sipyagina, I. O. Gozhikova, Y. A. Dobrovolsky, D. V. Konev, A. E. Baranchikov, O. S. Ivanova, A. E. Ukshe, and S. A. Lermontov, "Electrochemical properties of carbon aerogel electrodes: Dependence on synthesis temperature," Molecules, vol. 24, no. 21, p.1–13, 2019.

DOI: 10.3390/molecules24213847

[7] S. Zhuang, E. S. Lee, L. Lei, B. B. Nunna, L. Kuang, and W. Zhang, "Synthesis of nitrogen-doped graphene catalyst by high-energy wet ball milling for electrochemical systems," Int J Energy Res, vol. 40, no. 15, p.2136–2149, 2016.

DOI: 10.1002/er.3595

[8] Q. Lv, W. Si, J. He, L. Sun, C. Zhang, N. Wang, Z. Yang, X. Li, X. Wang, W. Deng, Y. Long, C. Huang, and Y. Li, "Selectively nitrogen-doped carbon materials as superior metal-free catalysts for oxygen reduction," Nat Commun, vol. 9, no. 1, 2018.

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05878-y

[9] H. W. Liang, X. Zhuang, S. Brüller, X. Feng, and K. Müllen, "Hierarchically porous carbons with optimized nitrogen doping as highly active electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction," Nat Commun, vol. 5, no. May, p.1–7, 2014.

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5973

[10] D. Guo, R. Shibuya, T. Kondo, and J. Nakamura, "Active sites in nitrogen-doped carbon materials for oxygen reduction reaction," Carbon-Based Metal-Free Catalysts: Design and Applications, vol. 1–2, no. 6271, p.227–249, 2018.

DOI: 10.1002/9783527811458.vol1-ch8

[11] S. Wang, X. Peng, L. Zhong, J. Tan, S. Jing, X. Cao, W. Chen, C. Liua, and R. Sun, "An ultralight, elastic, cost-effective, and highly recyclable superabsorbent from microfibrillated cellulose fibers for oil spillage cleanup," J Mater Chem A Mater, vol. 3, no. 16, p.8772–8781, 2015.

DOI: 10.1039/C4TA07057G

[12] M. Mahmoudpour, J. E. N. Dolatabadi, M. Hasanzadeh, and J. Soleymani, "Carbon-based aerogels for biomedical sensing: Advances toward designing the ideal sensor," Adv Colloid Interface Sci, vol. 298, p.102550, 2021.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cis.2021.102550

[13] A. D. French, "Idealized powder diffraction patterns for cellulose polymorphs," p.885–896, 2014.

DOI: 10.1007/s10570-013-0030-4

[14] B. M. Jović, T. Dobrovolska, U. Lačnjevac, I. Krastev, and V. D. Jović, "Characterization of electrodeposited Cd-Co alloy coatings by anodic linear sweep voltammetry," Electrochim Acta, vol. 54, no. 28, p.7565–7572, 2009.

DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2009.08.025

[15] S. L. J. Gojković, S. K. Zečević, M. D. Obradović, and D. M. Dražić, "Oxygen reduction on a duplex stainless steel," Corros Sci, vol. 40, no. 6, p.849–860, 1998.

DOI: 10.1016/S0010-938X(98)00004-3

[16] A. J. van Stroe and L. J. J. Janssen, "Determination of the diffusion coefficient of oxygen in sodium chloride solutions with a transient pulse technique," Anal Chim Acta, vol. 279, no. 2, p.213–219, 1993.

DOI: 10.1016/0003-2670(93)80320-K

[17] M. H. Shao, P. Liu, and R. R. Adzic, "Superoxide anion is the intermediate in the oxygen reduction reaction on platinum electrodes," J Am Chem Soc, vol. 128, no. 23, p.7408–7409, 2006.

DOI: 10.1021/ja061246s

[18] H. W. Kim, V. J. Bukas, H. Park, S. Park, K. M. Diederichsen, J. Lim, Y. H. Cho, J. Kim, W. Kim, T. H. Han, J. Voss, A. C. Luntz, and B. D. McCloskey, "Mechanisms of two-electron and four-electron electrochemical oxygen reduction reactions at nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide," ACS Catal, vol. 10, no. 1, p.852–863, 2020.

DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.9b04106