Free metal oxygen-reduction electro-catalysts obtained from biomass residue of the olive oil industry

•Biomass residues of the olive oil industry are transformed in valuable electrodes.•Solvothermal functionalization developed a rich and diverse surface chemistry.•Sulphur functionalities are crucial to develop a four electron mechanism.•Free metal carbon materials showed a very good electro-catalyti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Switzerland : 1996), 2016-12, Vol.306, p.1109-1115
Main Authors: Elmouwahidi, Abdelhakim, Vivo-Vilches, Jose F., Pérez-Cadenas, Agustín F., Maldonado-Hódar, Francisco J., Carrasco-Marín, Francisco
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activated carbon
Electro-catalyst
Oxygen reduction
Solvothermal
Sulphur
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Summary:•Biomass residues of the olive oil industry are transformed in valuable electrodes.•Solvothermal functionalization developed a rich and diverse surface chemistry.•Sulphur functionalities are crucial to develop a four electron mechanism.•Free metal carbon materials showed a very good electro-catalytic behaviour. Advanced carbon materials are obtained from a solid residue of waste water used in the olive oil industry. Solvothermal treatments with different amounts of thioglycolic acid are carried out in order to develop specific sulphur functionalities on the carbon surface. Samples are exhaustively characterized to determine the textural, chemical and electrochemical properties. These materials are tested as electro-catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction in a three electrode electrochemical set-up. Correlations between the characteristics of the carbons and their electrochemical performance are established. Electrodes containing sulphur functionalities show a very good electro-catalytic behaviour with larger kinetic current densities and lower activation potentials. Linear Sweep Voltammetry is performed at different rotation speeds in order to calculate the number of electrons transferred and kinetic current densities by applying Koutecky–Levich equation. Thus, it is pointed out that oxygen reduction takes place through the desired four electrons pathway on the sulphur doped electro-catalysts. These carbon materials show a similar catalytic performance to that of other free-metal electro-catalysts based in graphene recently reported in the bibliography.
ISSN:1385-8947
1873-3212
DOI:10.1016/j.cej.2016.08.042