Preparation And Electrochemical Properties Of Doped Nitrogen Explore Polymer Nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes doped with nitrogen were prepared by carbonizing polymer nanotubes as catalyst material in fuel cells to improve the electrochemical performance. The polymer nanotubes were synthesized through solution infiltration method using anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as raw material. The same processes were repeated on polyethylene glycol (PEG) as well.Bothcatalysts are much cheaper than traditional platinum-based catalysts. The large aperture of the carbon nanotubes is beneficial to mass transfer in oxygen-reduction reaction. The carbon nanotubes were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).The carbon nanotubes maintained the array morphology and the large aperture of the polymer nanotubes after carbonization procedure. The aperture of the nanotubes is about200nm. Both array structure and nitrogen doping can significantly increase the electrocatalytic performance. And the nanotube structure is also confirmed to be favorable for nitrogen doping. Overall, compared with Pt/C catalysts, carbon nanotubes possess much better performance in terms of kinetic current density, methanol corrosive resistance and stability.