Date of Award
5-29-2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Applied Science
First Advisor
Anindya Ghosh
Abstract
In this dissertation, we focused on utilizing naturally abundant, low-cost, environmentally benign, and renewable carbon precursors to synthesize doped carbonaceous materials as they are of particular interest in the scientific research because of their characteristic physiochemical properties. Such renewable bio-polymer derived doped carbonaceous hold potential applications in fuel cells, pollutant remediation, and many others. Due to the growing interest in developing high performance electrode materials for energy storage devices like supercapacitors, the design of thin-fils electrodes that delivered high specific capacitance with long term stability is essential. In chapter 1, the dissertation discussed backgrounds in carbon-based materials, renewable biopolymers, fuel cells electrode materials, and catalysts for pollutants remediation. The significance and the motivations for the research are also presented. In chapter 2, the synthesis of chitosan-derived NiO-Mn2O3/C doped nanocomposite via pyrolysis methods and characterization by various spectroscopy and microscopy techniques were presented. Chapter 2 discussed our investigation in the use of nanocomposite toward the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in O2-saturated 1 M NaOH electrolyte by various electrochemical means like CV, RDE, and RRDE. In chapter 3, We presented the use of cellulose as a carbon precursor and urea as a nitrogen dopant in the synthesis of N-doped carbonaceous material via the pyrolysis. The results form the characterizations of N-doped carbonaceous materials and their applicability in the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants under visible light were discussed. Additionally, the kinetic involved in the degradation, various intermediates and complete mineralized compounds analyzed, and the possible degradation mechanism were also presented. In the last chapter, electrochemical polymerization deposition method to synthesized CoN4-PPy thin films from the aqueous solution of cobalt-complex and pyrrole was presented, The supercapacitive properties of CoN4-PPy thin films were tested in 0.1M HClO4 by CV, GCD, and EIS techniques and the resulting specific capacitance calculated were compared with the similar supercapacitior electrode materials previously investigated. Overall, we demonstrated the use of naturally derived renewable biopolymers based carbonaceous materials and thin films electrode materials consisting of MN4 type metal complex (M = Co) can be used as smart materials for the photocatalytic and electrocatalytic applications.
Recommended Citation
Paudel Chhetri, bijay, "Doped Carbonaceous Materials and Thin Films as Smart Materials for Pollutant Remediation and Electrocatalytic Applications" (2020). Theses and Dissertations. 939.
https://research.ualr.edu/etd/939
