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Tailoring Carbon Nanotube Microsphere Architectures with Controlled Porosity

Zhang, Z; Sadeghi, MA; Jervis, R; Ye, S; Gostick, JT; Barralet, JE; Merle, G; (2019) Tailoring Carbon Nanotube Microsphere Architectures with Controlled Porosity. Advanced Functional Materials , 29 (42) , Article 1903983. 10.1002/adfm.201903983. Green open access

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Abstract

Nanomaterials are at the core of fuel cell electrodes, providing high‐area catalytic, proton, and electron conducting surfaces, traditionally on carbon black supports. Other carbons, e.g., carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene are less prone to oxidation; however, their handling is not trivial due to health risks associated with their size. Assembling them into microscale structures without jeopardizing their performance is ideal, but there are mass transfer limitations as thickness increases. In this work, a soluble acicular calcium carbonate (aragonite) is used as a porogen to create connected porosity in microspheres. Increasing macroporosity has a considerable positive impact on the mass transfer process. The experimental manipulation of porosity of the microspheres is combined with pore network modeling to better understand how pore distribution throughout the whole microsphere can optimize platinum utilization decorated onto the CNTs. Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity is compared with the prepared composite materials and a commercial Pt/C catalyst for 4 weeks. The composite materials exhibit a highly interconnected network resulting in a 3.4 times higher ORR activity (at 0.9 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode) than that of the nanoporous spheres with no macroporosity.

Type: Article
Title: Tailoring Carbon Nanotube Microsphere Architectures with Controlled Porosity
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201903983
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201903983
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: carbon nanotube microspheres, porosity, macropores, oxygen reduction reaction, electrocatalyst
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Chemical Engineering
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10081179
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