scholarly journals A Low Cost Fe3O4–Activated Biochar Electrode Sensor by Resource Utilization of Excess Sludge for Detecting Tetrabromobisphenol A

Micromachines ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Suxing Luo ◽  
Meizhi Yang ◽  
Yuanhui Wu ◽  
Jiang Li ◽  
Jun Qin ◽  
...  

Owing to its ubiquity in natural water systems and the high toxicity of its accumulation in the human body, it is essential to develop simple and low-cost electrochemical sensors for the determination of 3,3′,5,5′-tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA). In this work, Fe3O4–activated biochar, which is based on excess sludge, was prepared and characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and BET analysis to analyze its basic features. Subsequently, it was used to fabricate an electrochemical sensor for the detection of TBBPA. The electrochemical test results revealed that the Fe3O4–activated biochar film exhibited a larger active surface area, a lower charge transfer resistance and a higher accumulation efficiency toward TBBPA. Consequently, the peak current of TBBPA was significantly enhanced on the surface of the Fe3O4–activated biochar. The TBBPA sensing platform developed using the Fe3O4–activated biochar composite film, with relatively a lower detection limit (3.2 nM) and a wider linear range (5–1000 nM), was successfully utilized to determine TBBPA levels in water samples. In summary, the effective application of Fe3O4–activated biochar provided eco-friendly and sustainable materials for the development of a desirable high-sensitivity sensor for TBBPA detection.

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 1925 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiago Oliveira ◽  
Simone Morais

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) have provided unprecedented advances in the design of electrochemical sensors. They are composed by sp2 carbon units oriented as multiple concentric tubes of rolled-up graphene, and present remarkable active surface area, chemical inertness, high strength, and low charge-transfer resistance in both aqueous and non-aqueous solutions. MWCNT are very versatile and have been boosting the development of a new generation of electrochemical sensors with application in medicine, pharmacology, food industry, forensic chemistry, and environmental fields. This work highlights the most important synthesis methods and relevant electrochemical properties of MWCNT for the construction of electrochemical sensors, and the numerous configurations and successful applications of these devices. Thousands of studies have been attesting to the exceptional electroanalytical performance of these devices, but there are still questions in MWCNT electrochemistry that deserve more investigation, aiming to provide new outlooks and advances in this field. Additionally, MWCNT-based sensors should be further explored for real industrial applications including for on-line quality control.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 764-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuncai Chen ◽  
Zixun Yu ◽  
Li Wei ◽  
Zheng Zhou ◽  
Shengli Zhai ◽  
...  

Carbon nanotubes increase electrochemically active surface area and reduce charge transfer resistance of transition metal borides.


2010 ◽  
Vol 113-116 ◽  
pp. 1810-1813
Author(s):  
Fang Xiao ◽  
You Long Xu

MnO2 films were electrodeposited on the Ti substrates by galvanostatic method in various plating solutions, which was MnCl2, Mn(NO3)2, MnSO4 and Mn(CH3COO)2 solutions, respectively. On X-ray diffraction test, Crystal structures of all MnO2 films were associated to α-MnO2 of tetragonal crystal system. Scanning electron microscopy results show that morphologies of MnO2 films were clearly different. Among them, MnO2 film prepared in Mn(CH3COO)2 solution presented a lot of cracks and holes. According to electrochemical impedance spectrum analysis, this MnO2 film presents the lowest charge-transfer resistance. Additionally, electrochemical active surface areas of MnO2 films were calculated on the basis of equivalent circuit model for impedance data. The result was found that MnO2 film prepared in Mn(CH3COO)2 solution showed the biggest electrochemical active surface area, which was about 382 cm2. Cyclic voltammograms were carried out for all the samples. MnO2 film formed in Mn(CH3COO)2 solution showed the highest special capacitance of 230 F g-1. The results suggest that Mn(CH3COO)2 solution is suitable for electrodepositing MnO2 film using supercapacitor electrode materials.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 100-113
Author(s):  
Nolubabalo Matinise ◽  
Noluthando Mayedwa ◽  
Chinwe O. Ikpo ◽  
Ntuthuko Wonderboy Hlongwa ◽  
Miranda M. Ndipingwi ◽  
...  

Symmmetrically oriented Pd (100) and its bimetallic Pd (100)Ru electrocatalysts were chemically synthesized and their conductive properties employed in the electrochemical oxidation of ammonia. Electrochemical data based on EIS, SWV and CV revealed that the Pt/Pd (100)Ru electrode showed a better conductivity and higher catalytic response towards the electrooxidation of ammonia compared to Pt/Pd (100) electrode. This was demonstrated by the EIS results where Pt/Pd (100)Ru gave a charge transfer resistance (Rct) of 48.64 Ω, high exchange current and lower time constant (5.2738 x 10-1A and 3.2802 x 10-7 s /rad) values while the Pt/Pd (100) had values of 173.2 Ω, 1.4811 x 10-1A and 4.8321 10-7 s /rad. The drastic drop in Rct highlights the superiority of the Pt/Pd (100)Ru over the Pt/Pd (100) and confirms that facile interfacial electron transfer processes occur on the Pt/Pd (100)Ru electrode during the electrocatalytic ammonia oxidation. Investigations through voltammetry revealed that the Pt/Pd (100)Ru had a higher peak current density and a shift in potential to more negative values at ≈ -0.2 V and ≈ -0.4 V. The EASA value of Pt/Pd (100)Ru was found to be 119.24 cm2 whereas Pt/Pd (100) had value of 75.07 cm2. The high electrochemically active surface area of Pd (100)Ru at 119.24 cm2 compared to the 75.07 cm2 for Pd (100) strengthened this observation in performance between the two catalysts for ammonia electrooxidation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nana Wang ◽  
Xiao Zhang ◽  
Zhengyu Ju ◽  
Xingwen Yu ◽  
Yunxiao Wang ◽  
...  

AbstractIncreasing the energy density of lithium-sulfur batteries necessitates the maximization of their areal capacity, calling for thick electrodes with high sulfur loading and content. However, traditional thick electrodes often lead to sluggish ion transfer kinetics as well as decreased electronic conductivity and mechanical stability, leading to their thickness-dependent electrochemical performance. Here, free-standing and low-tortuosity N, O co-doped wood-like carbon frameworks decorated with carbon nanotubes forest (WLC-CNTs) are synthesized and used as host for enabling scalable high-performance Li-sulfur batteries. EIS-symmetric cell examinations demonstrate that the ionic resistance and charge-transfer resistance per unit electro-active surface area of S@WLC-CNTs do not change with the variation of thickness, allowing the thickness-independent electrochemical performance of Li-S batteries. With a thickness of up to 1200 µm and sulfur loading of 52.4 mg cm−2, the electrode displays a capacity of 692 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles at 0.1 C with a low E/S ratio of 6. Moreover, the WLC-CNTs framework can also be used as a host for lithium to suppress dendrite growth. With these specific lithiophilic and sulfiphilic features, Li-S full cells were assembled and exhibited long cycling stability.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlys Bezerra ◽  
Géssica Santos ◽  
Marilia Pupo ◽  
Maria Gomes ◽  
Ronaldo Silva ◽  
...  

<p>Electrochemical oxidation processes are promising solutions for wastewater treatment due to their high efficiency, easy control and versatility. Mixed metal oxides (MMO) anodes are particularly attractive due to their low cost and specific catalytic properties. Here, we propose an innovative thermal decomposition methodology using <a>polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)</a> as a solvent to prepare Ti/RuO<sub>2</sub>–IrO<sub>2</sub> anodes. Comparative anodes were prepared by conventional method employing a polymeric precursor solvent (Pechini method). The calcination temperatures studied were 300, 400 and 500 °C. The physical characterisation of all materials was performed by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy, while electrochemical characterisation was done by cyclic voltammetry, accelerated service lifetime and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Both RuO<sub>2</sub> and IrO<sub>2</sub> have rutile-type structures for all anodes. Rougher and more compact surfaces are formed for the anodes prepared using PVA. Amongst temperatures studied, 300 °C using PVA as solvent is the most suitable one to produce anodes with expressive increase in voltammetric charge (250%) and accelerated service lifetime (4.3 times longer) besides reducing charge-transfer resistance (8 times lower). Moreover, the electrocatalytic activity of the anodes synthesised with PVA toward the Reactive Blue 21 dye removal in chloride medium (100 % in 30 min) is higher than that prepared by Pechini method (60 min). Additionally, the removal total organic carbon point out improved mineralisation potential of PVA anodes. Finally, this study reports a novel methodology using PVA as solvent to synthesise Ti/RuO<sub>2</sub>–IrO<sub>2</sub> anodes with improved properties that can be further extended to synthesise other MMO compositions.</p>


Clean Energy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-66
Author(s):  
Qiuping Gan ◽  
Benzhi Wang ◽  
Judan Chen ◽  
Jianniao Tian ◽  
Tayirjan Taylor Isimjan ◽  
...  

Abstract The developing high-efficiency urea fuel cells have an irreplaceable role in solving the increasingly severe environmental crisis and energy shortages. The sluggish six-electron dynamic anodic oxidation reaction is the bottleneck of the rapid progress of urea fuel-cell technology. To tackle this challenge, we select the NiCr bimetallic system due to the unique synergic effect between the Ni and the Cr. Moreover, better conductivity is assured using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as the support. Most importantly, we use a simple hydrothermal method in catalyst preparation for easy scale-up at a low cost. The results show that the hybrid catalysts of NiCrx-oxide-CNTs with different Ni/Cr ratios show much better catalytic performance in terms of active surface area and current density as compared to that of Ni-hydro-CNTs. The optimized NiCr2-oxide-CNTs catalyst exhibits not only the largest electrochemically active surface area (ESA, 50.7 m2 g−1) and the highest urea electrocatalytic current density (115.6 mA cm−2), but also outstanding long-term stability. The prominent performance of the NiCr2-oxide-CNTs catalyst is due to the combined effect of the improved charge transfer between Ni and Cr species, the large ESA, along with an elegant balance between the oxygen-defect sites and hydrophilicity. Moreover, we have proposed a synergistically enhanced urea catalytic mechanism.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-16
Author(s):  
FS Nworie ◽  
EC Oroke ◽  
II Ikelle ◽  
JS Nworu

AbstractStudies on the adsorption of Pb(II) on plantain peels biochar (PPB) was conducted. The carbonized and activated, biochar was characterized using Braunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and x-ray diffraction crystallography (XRD). BET analysis of the PPB indicated that the pore size (cc/g) and pore surface area (m2/g) was 8.79 and 16.69 respectively. Result of the XRD evaluated through Debye-Scherrer equation, showed a nanostructure with crystallite size of 14.56 nm. Effects of initial metal ion concentration, pH, and contact time were studied in a batch reaction process. Results showed that the adsorption of lead from aqueous solution increased with an increase in pH and initial concentration. Equilibrium modeling studies suggested that the data fitted mainly to the Langmuir isotherm. Adsorption kinetic data tested using various kinetic models fitted the Weber and Morris intraparticle diffusion model implicating pore diffusion as the main rate limiting step. The sorption studies indicated the potential of plantain peel biochar as an effective, efficient and low cost adsorbent for remediating lead (II) ions contaminated environment.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (21) ◽  
pp. 6563
Author(s):  
Md. Mahbubur Rahman

Novel nickel nitroprusside (NNP) nanoparticles with incorporated graphene nanoplatelets (NNP/GnP) were used for the first time as a low-cost and effective counter electrode (CE) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). NNP was synthesized at a low-temperature (25 °C) solution process with suitable purity and crystallinity with a size range from 5 to 10 nm, as confirmed by different spectroscopic and microscopic analyses. The incorporation of an optimized amount of GnP (0.2 wt%) into the NNP significantly improved the electrocatalytic behavior for the redox reaction of iodide (I-)/tri-iodide (I3-) by decreasing the charge-transfer resistance at the CE/electrolyte interface, lower than the NNP- and GnP-CEs, and comparable to the Pt-CE. The NNP/GnP nanohybrid CE when applied in DSSC exhibited a PCE of 6.13% (under one sun illumination conditions) with the Jsc, Voc, and FF of 14.22 mA/cm2, 0.628 V, and 68.68%, respectively, while the PCE of the reference Pt-CE-based DSSC was 6.37% (Jsc = 14.47 mA/cm2, Voc = 0.635 V, and FF = 69.20%). The low cost of the NNP/GnP hybrid CE with comparable photovoltaic performance to Pt-CE can be potentially exploited as a suitable replacement of Pt-CE in DSSCs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-211
Author(s):  
Peng Peng ◽  
Jiewei Chen ◽  
Kai Niu ◽  
Zhuohai Liu ◽  
Hao Huang ◽  
...  

A novel strategy for structural design of current-collector-free lithium ion batteries (LIBs) has been proposed, MoO3/CNTs loading on the single side of a separator by a simple spin-coating method. LIBs with such a MoO3-based composite separator eliminate the need for metal current collectors and exhibit an extra high specific capacity (0.2C, ∼1200 mA h g–1). Faster ion transport and lower charge transfer resistance (Rct) of the composite separator were proved compared with the traditional MoO3-based electrode, which results in the increased special capacity. In addition, the pseudocapacitive effect caused by vacancies and narrow interval in the MoO3/CNTs materials also contributes to the high specific capacity of the batteries. The highly efficient ion and electron transport ability of the composite separator were proved in this study, and such a novel design strategy would be an alternative for low-cost LIBs.


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