To fabricate intermetallic nanoparticles with high oxygen reduction reaction activity, a high-temperature heat treatment of 700 to 1,000 °C is required. This heat treatment provides energy sufficient to induce an atomic rearrangement inside the alloy nanoparticles, increasing the mobility of particles, making them structurally unstable and causing a sintering phenomenon where they agglomerate together naturally. These problems cannot be avoided using a typical heat treatment process that only controls the gas atmosphere and temperature. In this study, as a strategy to overcome the limitations of the existing heat treatment process for the fabrication of intermetallic nanoparticles, we propose an interesting approach, to design a catalyst material structure for heat treatment rather than the process itself. In particular, we introduce a technology that first creates an intermetallic compound structure through a primary high-temperature heat treatment using random alloy particles coated with a carbon shell, and then establishes catalytic active sites by etching the carbon shell using a secondary heat treatment process. By using a carbon shell as a template, nanoparticles with an intermetallic structure can be kept very small while effectively controlling the catalytically active area, thereby creating an optimal alloy catalyst structure for fuel cells.

Transition metal chalcogenides are promising cathode materials for next-generation battery systems, particularly sodium-ion batteries. Ni3Co6S8-pitch-derived carbon composite microspheres with a yolk-shell structure (Ni3Co6S8@C-YS) were synthesized through a three-step process: spray pyrolysis, pitch coating, and post-heat treatment process. Ni3Co6S8@C-YS exhibited an impressive reversible capacity of 525.2 mA h g-1 at a current density of 0.5 A g-1 over 50 cycles when employed as an anode material for sodium-ion batteries. However, Ni3Co6S8 yolk shell nanopowder (Ni3Co6S8-YS) without pitch-derived carbon demonstrated a continuous decrease in capacity during charging and discharging. The superior sodium-ion storage properties of Ni3Co6S8@C-YS were attributed to the pitchderived carbon, which effectively adjusted the size and distribution of nanocrystals. The carbon-coated yolk-shell microspheres proposed here hold potential for various metal chalcogenide compounds and can be applied to various fields, including the energy storage field.

Here, we report the preparation of microporous-activated carbons from a Brazilian natural lignocellulosic agricultural waste, cupuassu shell, by pyrolysis at 500 ºC and KOH activation under different experimental conditions and their subsequent application as adsorbent for CO2 capture. The effect of the KOH:precursor ratio (wt/wt%) and the activation temperature on the porous texture of activated carbons have been studied. The values of specific surface area ranged from 1132 to 2486 m2/ g, and the overall micropore volume ranged from 0.73 to 1.02 cm3/ g. Carbons activated with 2:1 ratio of KOH and activation temperature of 700 ºC presented a CO2 adsorption at 1 bar of 7.8 and 4.4 mmol/g at 0 °C and 25 ºC, respectively. The isosteric heat of adsorption, Qst , was calculated for all samples by applying the Clausius–Clapeyron approach to CO2 adsorption isotherms at both temperatures. The values of CO2 adsorption capacities are among the highest reported in the literature, especially for activated carbons produced from biomass.

Enhancing the capacitive deionization performance requires the inner structure expansion of porous activated carbon to facilitate the charge storage and electrolyte penetration. This work aimed to modify the porosity of coconut-shell activated carbon (AC) through CO2 activation at high temperature. The electrochemical performance of CO2- activated AC electrodes was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry, charge/discharge test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, which exhibited that AC-800 had the superior performance with the highest capacitance of 112 F/g at the rate of 0.1 A/g and could operate for up to 4000 cycles. Furthermore, in the capacitive deionization, AC-800 showed salt removal of 9.15 mg/g with a high absorption rate of 2.8 mg/g min and Ni(II) removal of 5.32 mg/g with a rate close to 1 mg/g.min. The results promote the potential application of CO2- activated AC for desalination as well as Ni-removal through capacitance deionization (CDI) technology.

We report the behaviour of carbon black (CB) nanoparticles (spherical carbon shells), subjected to external pressure, using diamond anvil cell at synchrotron facility. CB nanoparticles have been synthesized by lamp black method using olive oil as combustion precursor and ferrocene as an organometallic additive. The catalyst-assisted CB has an iron oxide (γ-Fe2O3) core and amorphous carbon shell (i.e. core–shell structure). Our present study suggests that the carbon shells are partially transparent to the applied high pressure, and result in the reduction of effective pressure that gets transferred to the iron oxide core. High-pressure Raman spectroscopy results indicate that the surrounding carbon shells get compressed with pressure and this change is reversible. However, no structural transformation was observed till the highest applied pressure (25 GPa). The Raman spectroscopy results also suggests that the carbon shells are less pressure sensitive as their pressure coefficients (dω/dP) of G-peak were calculated (3.79 cm− 1/GPa) to be less than that for other carbon allotropes.

Activated carbon was synthesized from coconut shells. The Brunauer, Emmett and Teller surface area of the synthesized activated carbon was found to be 1640 m2/g with a pore volume of 1.032 cm3/g. The average pore diameter of the activated carbon was found to be 2.52 nm. By applying the size-strain plot method to the X-ray diffraction data, the crystallite size and the crystal strain was determined to be 42.46 nm and 0.000489897, respectively, which indicate a perfect crystallite structure. The field emission scanning electron microscopy image showed the presence of well-developed pores on the surface of the activated carbon. The presence of important functional groups was shown by the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectrum. The adsorption of methyl orange onto the activated carbon reached 100% after 12 min. Kinetic analysis indicated that the adsorption of methyl orange solution by the activated carbon followed a pseudo-second-order kinetic mechanism (R2 > 0.995). Therefore, the results show that the produced activated carbon can be used as a proper adsorbent for dye containing effluents.

SnO2-CoO/carbon-coated CoO core/shell nanowire composites were synthesized by using electrospinning and hydrothermal methods. In order to obtain SnO2-CoO/carbon-coated CoO core/shell nanowire composites, SnO2-Co3O4 nanowire composites and SnO2-Co3O4/polygonal Co3O4 core/shell nanowire composites are also synthesized. To demonstrate their structural, chemical bonding, and morphological properties, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were carried out. These results indicated that the morphologies and structures of the samples were changed from SnO2-Co3O4 nanowires having cylindrical structures to SnO2-Co3O4/Co3O4 core/shell nanowires having polygonal structures after a hydrothermal process. At last, SnO2-CoO/carbon-coated CoO core/shell nanowire composites having irregular and high surface area are formed after carbon coating using a polypyrrole (PPy). Also, there occur phases transformation of cobalt phases from Co3O4 to CoO during carbon coating using a PPy under a argon atmosphere.

Si nanowire/multiwalled carbon nanotube nanocomposite arrays were synthesized. Vertically aligned Si nanowire arrays were fabricated by Ag nanodendrite-assisted wet chemical etching of n-type wafers using HF/AgNO3 solution. The composite structure was synthesized by formation of a sheath of carbon multilayers on a Si nanowire template surface through a thermal CVD process under various conditions. The results of Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and high resolution transmission electron microcopy demonstrate that the obtained nanocomposite has a Si nanowire core/carbon nanotube shell structure. The remarkable feature of the proposed method is that the vertically aligned Si nanowire was encapsulated with a multiwalled carbon nanotube without metal catalysts, which is important for nanodevice fabrication. It can be expected that the introduction of Si nanowires into multiwalled carbon nanotubes may significantly alter their electronic and mechanical properties, and may even result in some unexpected material properties. The proposed method possesses great potential for fabricating other semiconductor/CNT nanocomposites.

One of the objectives of this study were to develop a process for manufacturing activated carbons from agricultural by-products(rice shells and saw dust) and another is to measure the iodine number, ash content and removal ratio of COD. The other is to compare those values with those of commercialized activated carbons. Agricultural by-products based activated carbons were manufactured through the steam-reaction method. A rotary kiln type furnace was used for both carbonization and activation. The optimum operating temperatures for carbonization and activation were 650℃ and 900℃, respectively. For the activated carbons produced under these conditions, the iodine number was 1,127mg/g. Especially, removal efficiency of COD was 61.5% for 40mg/L of wastewater and 30% for 150mg/L of SLS(Sodium Lauryl Sulfate).