Nitrogen Doping of Carbons

In many cases the effect of nitrogen doping of carbons on their catalytic properties might be due to two overlapping effects, catalysis by basic surface sites and by electron donation. 

B. G. Sumpter, V. Meunier, J.-C. Charlier.D. J. Smith, H. Terrones, M. Terrones, Heterodoped nanotubes theory, synthesis, and characterization of phosphorus nitrogen doped multiwaiied carbon nanotubes, ACS Nano, vol. 2, pp. 441-448, 2008. 

J. A. Talla, D. Zhang, S. A. Curran, Electrical transport measurements of highly conductive nitrogen-doped multiwalled carbon nanotubes/poly(bisphenol A carbonate) composites, Journal of Materials Research, vol. 22, pp. 2854-2859, 2011. 

Ayala, P. Arenal, R. Ruemmeli, M. Rubio, A. Pichler, T., The doping of carbon nanotubes with nitrogen and their potential applications. Carbon 2010,48 575-586. 

Figure 6.7 Catalytic activity of nitrogen-doped activated carbon powders and fibers for SO2 oxidation into H2SO4 normalized by surface area versus surface pyridinic-like nitrogen percentage. (From ref. 107, with permission.)...

Perez-Aguilar NV, Munoz-Sandoval E, Diaz-Flores PE, Rangel-Mendez JR (2010) Adsorption of cadmium and lead onto oxidized nitrogen-doped multiwall carbon nanotubes in aqueous solution. Journal of Nanoparticle Research, Vol.l2, No.2,... 

Xu, B., S. Hou, G. Cao, F. Wu, and Y. Yang. 2012. Sustainable nitrogen-doped porous carbon with high surface areas prepared from gelatin for supercapacitors. Journal of Materials Chemistry 22 19088-19093. 

Chen, X. Y., C. Chen, Z. 1. Zhang, D. H. Xie, X. Deng, and J. W. Liu. 2013. Nitrogen-doped porous carbon for supercapacitor with long-term electrochemical stability. Journal of Power Sources 230 50-58. 

Hao G-P, Li W-C, Qian D, Lu A-H (2010) Rapid synthesis of nitrogen-doped porous carbon monolith for CO2 capture. Adv Mater 22 853-857... 

Gutierrez MC, Carriazo D, Ania CO, Parra JB, Ferrer ML, del Monte F (2011) Deep eutectic solvents as both precursors and structure directing agents in the synthesis of nitrogen doped hierarchical carbons highly suitable for CO2 capture. Energy Environ Sci 4 3535-3544... 

Fig. 9.2 Schematic illustration of the micropore filling technique and active site formation during NPMC synthesis, (a) Two adjacent graphitic crystallites hosting a slit micropore in the BP carbon support, (b) cross section view of the empty micropore, (c) micropore after being filled with 1,10-phenanthroline and iron acetate precursors, and (d) active site formation and nitrogen-doped graphitic carbon deposition after subsequent heat treatments in argon and ammonia (from [28] with permission from AAAS)...

Besides doping their carbon nanostructures with nitrogen, Ozkan and collaborators also tried to increase their nitrogen doping of the graphitic edges in their catalysts with additional phosphorous atoms [72,74] or with additional sulfur... 

Shiraishi S (2012) Heat-treatment and nitrogen-doping of activated carbons for high voltage operation of electric double layer capacitor. Key Eng Mat 497 80-86... 

It is known that the efficiency of catalysts is not only a function of the kind of active site, but also dependent on the constimtion of the carbon support, that will influence the overall electronic properties of the catalyst material [96, 107-109]. For platinum-based catalysts, it was shown that by nitrogen doping of the carbon support, the platinum particles are stronger linked to the support material compared to the not-modified carbon. The resultant smaller particles with a more homogeneous distribution enabled higher ORR activity and an improved long-term stability [107, 110]. 

Kim, W. et al. 2009. Preparation of nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon nanopipes for the electrochemical double-layer capacitor. Carbon, 47,407-1411. 

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