Tuesday, 15 October 2019
Grand Ballroom (The Hilton Atlanta)
Carbon Nano Onions (CNO) are fullerene-like carbon shells with large external surface area and a high electrical conductivity. These characteristics make this material unique because serve as an electrically conductive support for electrocatalyst that, at the same time, provides plenty active sites for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The CNO is a material obtained by annealing carbon nanodiamond at 1650˚C, modified and oxidized by an acidic procedure and then used as support for metal-free electrocatalysts to polymerize aniline in solution for the final development of the ORR. To execute this procedure the Rotating Disk Electrode was used, where the Chronoamperometry technique was applied using a positive potential for the oxidation of aniline. Cycle voltammetry from the window of -0.2 to 0.8V vs Ag|AgCl was used to characterize the surface of the electrode before and after of every polymerization step. The complex obtained was analyzed and characterized by Scanning Electron Microscope to observe the surface and the Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy to know the elements presents of the hybrid CNO/Polyaniline. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy was used to confirm the presence of the carbon-nitrogen bonds that come from polyaniline, X-Ray Diffraction was used to confirm the structure, and the Raman Spectroscopy was used to verify the completion of our hybrid. The results shown that the CNO serves as support to convert aniline into polyaniline demonstrating promising uses of this materials for the developing of energy systems without the presence of metals for the carry out of the ORR.
