Doped ordered mesoporous carbons as novel, selective electrocatalysts for the reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline

Article abstract of DOI:10.1039/c8ta01609g

Ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) doped with nitrogen, phosphorus or boron were synthesised through a two-step nanocasting method and studied as electrocatalysts for the reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline in a half-cell setup. The nature of the dopant played a crucial role in the electrocatalytic performance of the doped OMCs, which was monitored by LSV with a rotating disk electrode setup. The incorporation of boron generated the electrocatalysts with the highest kinetic current density, whereas the incorporation of phosphorus led to the lowest overpotential. Doping with nitrogen led to intermediate behaviour in terms of onset potential and kinetic current density, but provided the highest selectivity towards aniline, thus resulting in the most promising electrocatalyst developed in this study. Density functional theory calculations allowed explaining the observed difference in the onset potentials between the various doped OMCs, and indicated that both graphitic N and pyrdinic N can generate active sites in the N-doped electrocatalyst. A chronoamperometric experiment over N-doped OMC performed at -0.75 V vs. Fc/Fc⁺ in an acidic environment, resulted in a conversion of 61% with an overall selectivity of 87% to aniline. These are the highest activity and selectivity ever reported for an electrocatalyst for the reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline, making N-doped OMC a promising candidate for the electrochemical cogeneration of this industrially relevant product and electricity in a fuel cell setup.

Full text of DOI:10.1039/c8ta01609g

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DOI: 10.1039/C8TA01609G.
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Kun Chang, Zhaorong Chang et al.
Bubble-template-assisted synthesis of hollow fullerene-like
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Journal of Materials Chemistry A
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DOI: 10.1039/C8TA01609G
Doped ordered mesoporous carbons as novel, selective electrocatalysts for the
reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline
Nick Daems,a,b Francesca Risplendi,c Kitty Baert,d Annick Hubin,d Ivo F.J. Vankelecom,a Giancarlo Cicero,c Paolo P.
Pescarmonae,*
a Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
b Advanced Reactor Technology, U Antwerpen, Campus Drie Eiken, Universiteitsplein 1 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
c Applied Science and Technology Department, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
d Research Group Electrochemical and Surface Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
e Chemical Engineering Group, Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen (ENTEG), University of Groningen, Nijenborgh
4, 9749 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
*Corresponding author. Email: p.p.pescarmona@rug.nl
Abstract: Ordered mesoporous carbons (OMC) doped with nitrogen, phosphorus or boron were synthesised through a
two-step nanocasting method and studied as electrocatalysts for the reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline in a half-cell setup.
The nature of the dopant played a crucial role in the electrocatalytic performance of the doped OMCs, which was monitored
by LSV with a rotating-disk electrode setup. The incorporation of boron generated the electrocatalysts with the highest
kinetic current density, whereas the incorporation of phosphorus led to the lowest overpotential. Doping with nitrogen led to
intermediate behaviour in terms of onset potential and kinetic current density, but provided the highest selectivity towards
aniline, thus resulting in the most promising electrocatalyst developed in this study. Density Functional Theory calculations
allowed explaining the observed difference in the onset potentials between the various doped OMCs, and indicated that both
graphitic N and pyrdinic N can generate active sites in the N-doped electrocatalyst. A chronoamperometric experiment over
N-doped OMC performed at -0.75 V vs. Fc/Fc+ in acidic environment, resulted in a conversion of 61% with an overall
selectivity of 87% to aniline. These are the highest activity and selectivity ever reported for an electrocatalyst for the
reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline, making N-doped OMC a promising candidate for the electrochemical cogeneration of
this industrially relevant product and electricity in a fuel cell setup.
Keywords: Electrocatalysis, aniline, doped ordered mesoporous carbons, fuel cells.
1. Introduction
Nowadays, the fuel cell industry and the chemical industry run mainly independently from each other. This means
that fuel cells are almost exclusively used for the generation of electricity, with water or carbon dioxide as end
product. However, since many industrially valuable chemicals can be obtained by means of thermodynamically
favourable redox reactions (ΔrG° < 0), the prospect exist of carrying out these syntheses in a fuel cell setup. This
approach has the advantage that the chemical energy liberated by the reaction, which is typically lost as heat in the
current process, is converted into electricity. In this way, the production of industrially valuable products could be
coupled with the generation of electricity. This cogeneration approach would lead to more sustainable and energy-
efficient processes, which is in line with the current societal and industrial targets.1–3 An additional advantage of an
electrochemical over a conventional production process, is the possibility to control the selectivity and the reaction
rate through the cell potential.4,5
While this is a relatively new and yet largely unexplored field, several examples do exist in literature. Amongst
others, they include the reduction of oxygen to hydrogen peroxide,2,6–9 the reduction of nitrogen monoxide to
hydroxylamine,4,5,10,11 the reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline1,12–15 and the oxidation of glycerol.16–20 This study
focuses on the reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline, which is a compound with a broad range of industrial
applications,21 among which the most important is as intermediate in the production of polyurethanes.22
The electrochemical reduction of the nitro group was first investigated by Haber et al. and has been extensively
studied since then.1,12,13,23,24 The overall reactions are:
Anode: H2
→
2H+ + 2e- E° = 0 V
(1)
Cathode: PhNO2 + 6H+ + 6e-
→
PhNH2 + 2H2O E° = 0.82 V
(2)
1

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As discussed in detail elsewhere,13 the full reaction scheme is more complex and contains several reaction
intermediates and side-products, which originate from both electrochemical and
hemical steps (Scheme 1).25
c
Importantly, the product selectivity and the reaction rate is strongly influenced by the physicochemical features of
the electrocatalyst employed at the cathode.1,14,26–32 In order to make this electrochemical route towards aniline
economically viable, it is of utmost importance to develop cost-effective and productive electrocatalysts with a high
selectivity towards the target product, aniline. Recent research performed by our group has shown that Cu
nanoparticles supported on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) outperformed their Pt counterparts in terms
of onset potential, proving the possibility to use non-noble metals as a less expensive catalytic species.1,12,13 Further
investigation of electrocatalysts containing non-noble metals (Fe, Co and Cu) supported on N-doped carbon led to
the identification of an electrocatalyst with a low loading of highly dispersed CuxO/Cu species with much
enhanced selectivity towards the desired aniline product.33 This study also suggested that non-metallic sites could
play a catalytic role, in analogy to recent results obtained on N-doped diamond.32 Therefore, and in an attempt to
further reduce the electrocatalyst cost, the possibility to use ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) doped with
nitrogen, boron or phosphorus as electrocatalysts for the nitrobenzene reduction is investigated in this work. Doped
carbon materials were chosen since they consist of inexpensive, widely available elements and are devoid of metals.
Furthermore, the presence of a graphitic carbon backbone grants a high electrochemical stability and a good
electron conductivity.34,35 Doping the graphitic carbon framework disrupts the electron delocalisation in the
graphitic π-system, generating sites with pairs of partial positive and negative charges, which may act as active sites
for the nitrobenzene reduction (easier adsorption of the negatively charged oxygen atom of the nitro-group on the
positive sites).34 There are several reasons why doped OMCs were targeted over doped carbon nanotubes or doped
graphene. First of all, they possess a higher specific surface area (up to 1900 m²/g), which is anticipated to result in
a higher number of accessible active sites.36,37 Furthermore, the presence of mesopores grants easier accessibility of
the active sites compared to microporous materials.34,38 Finally, since they can be prepared in the absence of
metals, they are virtually metal-free, which is not necessarily the case with graphene or carbon nanotubes.39–42
While doped OMCs have been extensively studied for the oxygen reduction reaction (showing promising
results),2,34,36,38,43,44 they have not yet been applied for the electrochemical reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline. In
this work, a two-step nanocasting method previously developed by our group to prepare N-doped OMC,2 was
modified to synthesise OMCs doped also with boron or phosphorus. This synthesis method offers several
advantages. First, by using SBA-15 silica with its interconnected two-dimensional mesoporous structure as hard
template, doped OMCs with high specific surface area can be obtained. Secondly, by covering the template pore
walls first with a dopant precursor, a high accessibility of the active sites can be ensured. Finally, compared to the
technique that is required to prepare N-doped diamond, this synthesis method requires less severe conditions and
is less expensive.34 The synthesised doped OMC materials were thoroughly characterised and tested for the first
time as electrocatalysts for the reduction of nitrobenzene, displaying the highest selectivity reported so far towards
the target aniline product. In addition, Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations highlighted the fundamental
role of the heteroatom doping site on the catalytic activity of the doped OMC materials.
Nitrobenzene
Cyclohexylamine
Nitrosobenzene
Phenylhydroxylamine
Aniline
-
H
H
H
H
O
H
OH
O
O
+
N
N
N
N
N
+
-
+
-
+
-
+
-
+ 2H + 2e
+ 6H + 6e
+ 2H + 2e
+ 2H + 2e
-H O
-H O
2
2
Condensation
H N
-
2
O
Bamberger
+
Rearrangement
N
N
N
N
+
-
+ 2H + 2e
O
-H O
2
Azoxybenzene
Azobenzene
Para-ethoxyaniline
Scheme 1. Main and side reaction paths in the electrochemical reduction of nitrobenzene.
2

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2. Experimental and Simulation Methods
2.1 Materials
The following chemicals were used in this work: aniline (99.8%, pure, Acros Organics), dihydroxynaphthalene (≥
98%, Sigma Aldrich), pluronic P123 (Sigma Aldrich), tetraethyl orthosilicate (Sigma Aldrich, reagent grade), glycerol
(>99.5%, Sigma Aldrich), benzene-1,4-diboronic acid (≥ 95%, Sigma Aldrich), tris(4-methoxyphenyl)phosphine (98%,
Alfa Aesar), ammonium peroxydisulphate (98%, Acros Organics), sulphuric acid (>95%, Fisher Chemical),
hydrochloric acid (37% aqueous solution, Fisher Chemical), perchloric acid (70% aqueous solution, Sigma Aldrich),
nitrobenzene (≥99%, Sigma Aldrich) and phosphate buffer (pH=7, Fisher). All these chemicals were used as received
from commercial sources.
2.2 Synthesis of the electrocatalysts
Doped ordered mesoporous carbon materials were prepared through methods inspired by a procedure previously
developed by our group (Scheme 2).2 Briefly: in the first step, the SBA-15 hard template was synthesised, calcined
and then 0.5 g of it (SBET = 819 m² g-1 and Vpores = 0.66 cm³ g-1) was impregnated with the dopant precursor. Three
different dopant precursors were used: one N-containing, i.e aniline (NOMC); one P-containing, i.e. tris(4-
methoxyphenyl)phosphine (POMC); and one B-containing, i.e. benzene-1,4-diboronic acid (BOMC). In each case, the
amount of dopant precursor to be employed was determined as the amount estimated to be necessary to cover the
SBA-15 surface with a monolayer, based on the molecular cross-sectional area of each precursor.2 The calculated
amounts were then gradually adapted by increasing the amount of precursor (if the pores were not completely
filled) or by decreasing it (if unordered material was observed by TEM besides the desired ordered structure). This
optimisation led to the following final amounts: 0.17 g for aniline, 0.24 g for tris(4-methoxyphenyl)phosphine and
0.30 g for benzene-1,4-diboronic acid. For the synthesis of NOMC, aniline and 0.5 g of ammonium peroxydisulphate
(employed to initiate the aniline polymerisation) were added to 250 ml of a suspension of 0.5 g of SBA-15 in 0.5M
aqueous HCl and stirred for 24h at 0 < T < 4°C. For the synthesis of BOMC and POMC, the respective precursors
were added to 10 ml of a suspension of 0.5 g of SBA-15 in acetone and stirred for 24h at RT. After evaporation of
the solvent, each material was pyrolysed for a first time at 900°C for 3h under N2 flow (1 cm³s-1). Next, the
remaining pore volume was filled up with dihydroxynaphthalene (0.20 g, 0.12 g and 0.13 g for the N-doped, P-
doped and B-doped OMCs, respectively), followed by a second pyrolysis at 900°C for 3 h under N2 flow (1 cm³s-1).
Finally, the SBA-15 template was removed by treatment with a NaOH solution (2.5 wt% in a 50/50 water/ethanol
mixture). For a more detailed description we refer to our previous work on N-doped ordered mesoporous carbon
materials.2 As a reference and to investigate the influence of oxygen species, a material was synthesised using only
dihydroxynaphthalene (0.44 g) to fill up the complete pore volume (OMC). The materials are further referred to
using their respective abbreviations, i.e. OMC, BOMC, NOMC and POMC (see Scheme 2). Prior to physicochemical
and/or electrochemical characterisation the samples were stored under N2 in a desiccator.
Scheme 2. Synthesis route for preparing the doped ordered mesoporous carbon materials.
3

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2.3 Physicochemical characterisation
Nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms were measured at 77 K on a Micromeritics Tristar 3000 after a
pretreatment at 300°C for 5h under N2 atmosphere to remove residual water. The pore size distributions were
determined using the Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) method, whereas the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method
was used to calculate the specific surface area of the samples. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images were
taken at MTM-KU Leuven, using a Philips FEG CM200 operated at 200 kV. Samples were prepared by dispersing the
powders in ethanol and placing several drops of the dispersion onto a holey carbon grid. X-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy (XPS) measurements were carried out on a Physical Electronics PHI 1600 multi-technique system using
an Al Kα (1486.6 eV) monochromatic X-ray source operated at 15 kV and 150 W at a base pressure of 2·10-9 Torr.
The graphitic C 1s band at 284.6 eV was used as internal standard, in order to correct possible deviations caused by
electric charging of the samples. The MultiPak software was employed for the deconvolution and integration of the
XPS signals using Gaussian curves for fitting. Room-temperature Raman spectra were measured on a LabRAM HR
Evolution spectrometer from HORIBA Scientific. The spectrometer was equipped with a high stability confocoal
microscope with XYZ motorised stage and objectives for 10x 50x, 100x magnification, a multichannel air cooled
detector (with a spectral resolution of < 1 cm-1) and a solid state laser at a wavelength of 532 nm (Nd:YAG).
Deconvolution and peak integration was carried out by means of the Igor pro software. X-ray fluorescence (XRF)
spectra were measured on a Bruker S8 Tiger, equipped with a 4kW Rhodium X-ray tube. The samples were
measured using the QuantExpress Semi-quantitative method. This method employs three different crystals (PET, XS-
55, Lif200) to divide the fluorescence spectrum originating from the sample into the specific wavelengths of the
elements. Two detectors are employed: a proportional counter for light elements and a scintillation counter for the
heavy elements. The samples are measured in a plastic holder with a bottom consisting of Mylar foil.
2.4 Electrochemical characterisation
All electrochemical measurements were performed in a half cell setup using a Gamry Interface 1000E potentiostat,
using glassy carbon porous rotating disk electrodes (d = 5 mm). The electrocatalysts were deposited as an ink on the
surface of these electrodes. For each measurement, the ink was prepared by dispersing 24.0 mg of electrocatalyst in
900 µL of a 1 wt% solution of polystyrene in toluene. Approximately 3.47 µL of this ink was deposited on the glassy
carbon electrode, after which toluene was evaporated at 50°C for 20 min in a vacuum oven. This procedure resulted
in an average catalyst loading of 0.47 mg/cm². While this might result in a relatively thick active layer, it is expected
that the accessibility to the active sites is granted by the mesoporous nature of the applied electrocatalyst.44 The
reference electrode was a Fc/Fc+ reference electrode system (E°Fc/Fc+ = 0.64 vs. S.H.E.) and the counter electrode
was a Pt grid. All potentials are referred to the Fc/Fc+ redox couple. The linear sweep voltammetry (LSV)
measurements were carried out in 0.3 M HClO4 in ethanol. To avoid possible interference of the oxygen reduction
reaction, N2 was bubbled through the electrolyte for at least 30 min to remove O2 prior to the measurements. The
electrolyte temperature was kept at 25°C with a thermostatic bath. For the LSV measurements, 50 ml of 5 mM
nitrobenzene electrolyte solution was used. The potential was scanned in the range from -0.2 to -1.8 V vs. Fc/Fc+ at
a rate of 5 mV s-1. For each electrocatalyst, blank measurements, i.e. in absence of nitrobenzene, were recorded
before investigating the nitrobenzene reduction. The reliability of the experimental results was granted by
repeating each measurement at least two times and by reporting the average values. The potential of each
measurement was corrected for the ohmic potential drop (equal to 125 Ohm, as determined by electrochemical
impedance spectroscopy) as a consequence of the electrolyte resistance between the reference and the working
electrode.
The onset potential, i.e. the potential at which the nitrobenzene reduction reaction starts, was determined as the
potential at which the slope of the LSV plot exceeded 0.1 mA cm-2 V-1. The half-wave potential (E ), i.e. the potential
½
at which the reaction is in the middle of the mixed kinetic-diffusion regime, was determined as the potential
corresponding to the inflection point in the LSV plot. The Koutécky-Levich (K-L) equation (Eq. 1) was used to
calculate the number of exchanged electrons (
n
) and to determine the kinetic current density:38
ꢀ
ꢁ
ꢀ
ꢀ
ꢀ
ꢀ
ꢍ/ꢎ
ꢈ
=
+
=
+
(Eq. 1)
ꢐꢑ/ꢒ ꢑ/ꢍ
ꢁ
ꢁ
ꢄꢅꢆꢇ
ꢉ.ꢊꢋꢄꢅꢇ ꢌ
ꢏ
ꢓ
ꢂ
ꢃ
ꢈ
ꢈ
where J is the recorded current density, which consists of a kinetic factor (JK) and a diffusion-limited current density
(JD), n is the number of transferred electrons, F is the Faraday constant, k is the electron transfer rate constant, C0 is
the concentration of nitrobenzene in the bulk (5 x 10-6 mol cm-3), ν is the kinematic viscosity of the electrolyte
(0.0152 cm² s-1), D0 is the diffusion coefficient (4.7 x 10-6 cm² s-1) and ω is the rotation speed of the rotating disk
electrode.12 At a chosen potential,
can be determined from the intercept with the y-axis. The current densities were calculated with respect to the
n can be determined from the slope of the K-L plots. The kinetic current density
4

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geometric surface area of the glassy carbon electrode (Ageo = 0.20 cm²) since it is not possible to accurately
determine the actual surface area, which depends both on the specific surface area of the electrocatalyst and on
the amount of binder and electrocatalyst that are applied on the disk. Therefore, the kinetic current densities
reported in this work include contribution of both the intrinsic activity (per surface unit) and of the specific surface
area of the electrocatalyst.13 This allows a meaningful comparison of the electrocatalytic performance of different
materials. However, it should be realised that this ranking differs from reports where the electrochemically active
surface area is used to normalise the kinetic current density, in which case the kinetic current density is a direct
measure of the intrinsic activity (per surface unit).
In order to investigate the conversion and the product selectivity in the nitrobenzene reduction reaction over the
most promising electrocatalysts, chronoamperometric experiments were performed in a single cell in which the two
half cells are separated by means of a Zirfon® membrane.45 The rotation speed of the working electrode was set at
500 rpm and the potential was set at -0.75 V vs Fc/Fc+ in 0.3M HClO4 in ethanol. The volume of the half cell with the
working electrode was 170 ml and a concentration of 15 mM of nitrobenzene was used. After 52h, the pH of the
reaction solution was adjusted to 7 with a 1M KOH ethanolic solution and a phosphate buffer solution,33 and
insoluble KClO4 was filtered out. Analysis of the products after chronoamperometry was performed using gas
chromatography (GC) on a Shimadzu 2010 Plus equipped with a Rtx-5 amine-functionalised standard capillary
column (15 m, 0.25 mm internal diameter). Each GC analysis was done in triplicate and the average results were
reported. The conversion was calculated based on the GC data and compared to the conversion values calculated
with Faraday’s law:
ꢔ
nreacted
=
(Eq. 2)
ꢅꢄ
where nreacted is the number of moles of nitrobenzene that reacted, Q is the amount of charge that passed through
the system (measured using the area under the chronoamperometry curve), F is the Faraday constant and is the
average number of exchanged electrons per molecule of nitrobenzene. The conversion can be calculated by dividing
reacted by the initial number of moles of nitrobenzene.
n
n
Cyclic voltammetry (CV) was used to evaluate the electrochemical stability of selected electrocatalysts. The
potential was cycled at a scan rate of 100 mV s-1 between -0.2 to -1.8 V vs. Fc/Fc+ at in a half-cell containing 5 mM
nitrobenzene in a 0.3 M HClO4 ethanolic solution. 1000 cycles were performed. Prior to the last scan the solution
was stirred to get a homogeneous nitrobenzene distribution. The second and the last scan were compared to
evaluate the electrocatalyst stability.
2.5 Computational approach
The theoretical calculations were based on the Density Functional Theory (DFT) as implemented in the Quantum
Espresso package.46 The Kohn-Sham (KS) equations were solved using ultrasoft pseudopotential to describe the
electron-ion interaction, employing the gradient corrected Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) functional47 to describe
the exchange-correlation effects, and expanding the electronic wave functions in plane waves (PW). Dispersion
interactions were taken into account by employing the DFT-D2 method.48,49 For all calculations, a PW energy cut-off
of 28 Ry was adopted for the wave functions and of 280 Ry for the charge density and potentials. Both 4x4 and 6x6
graphene supercells were employed to simulate the surface of the B-, P- or N-doped OMCs and the adsorption of
nitrobenzene. A vacuum of 10 Å thickness was added in the direction perpendicular to the 2D layers to avoid
spurious interaction between periodic replicas. The Brillouin Zone (ZB) was sampled employing a 12x12x1
Monkhorst-Pack mesh50 or reduced grid in case of supercells, to maintain consistent k-points density. All structures
were relaxed by minimising the atomic forces; convergence was assumed when the maximum component of the
residual forces on the ions was smaller than 10-4 Ry/Bohr. The adsorption energy (ΔEads) of the nitrobenzene
molecule on pure and doped graphene was evaluated by calculating ΔEads = Etot − Emat − Emol, where Etot is the total
energy of the system formed by a molecule adsorbed on the surface of the material (after optimisation of the
geometry of the system), and Emat and Emol correspond to the total energy of the relaxed material and isolated
molecule, respectively.
3 Results and discussion
Ordered mesoporous carbons doped with different elements (N, B, or P) were prepared by modifying a two-step
nanocasting method that was developed by our group.2 It is the first time that this type of electrocatalysts was
tested for the electrocatalytic reduction of nitrobenzene, with the industrially relevant aniline as target product. The
electrocatalysts were ranked based on product selectivity (number of exchanged e-) and activity (onset potential
and kinetic current density). The electrocatalyst performance was correlated to the physicochemical properties
5

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determined through a combination of experimental and simulation techniques in order to understand which
features of the materials led to the most efficient electrocatalyst for the reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline.
The success of the applied synthesis strategy in preparing OMCs with a high specific surface area and with nitrogen-,
boron- or phosphorus-doping in the graphitic carbon framework was demonstrated by TEM, N2 physisorption and
XPS. TEM was used to investigate the pore structure of the different materials (Fig. 1). The presence of the
characteristic hexagonal arrays of parallel carbon rods unequivocally demonstrates the successful replication of the
SBA-15 used as hard template. In addition to the desired structure, small regions containing disordered carbon can
also be observed in the TEM images. These species most likely find their origin in the dopant and/or carbon
precursor that remained outside the SBA-15 template during the synthesis. Even after a careful fine-tuning of the
amount of applied precursors to the pore volume, such species could not be completely avoided. The mesoporous
structure observed by TEM is reflected by the very high specific surface of the materials obtained by means of N2-
physisorption. The structural and textural features of the doped OMC materials are summarised in Table 1. The
specific surface area of POMC (1092 m² g-1) is remarkably high among doped OMCs prepared with SBA-15 as hard
template.2,34,38 The pore size distributions of the electrocatalysts are narrow (Fig. S1) and are centred around 3 to 4
nm (Table 1), in line with the ordered structure of materials of the OMC type.
Figure 1. TEM images of SBA-15 (A), NOMC (B), BOMC (C), POMC (D) and OMC (E). The inset of image (A & B, same
scale as for the main image) shows a top view of the hexagonal array of rods. All OMC samples were measured after
removing the SBA-15 template.
Table 1. Structural and textural properties of SBA-15 and OMCs. a SBET is the BET surface area. b Total pore volume
and pore size calculated with the BJH method. c Micropore volume determined from the t-plot.
SBETa (m² g-1)
Total pore
Micropore
Pore sizeb (nm)
volumeb (cm³ g-1)
volumec (cm³ g-1)
SBA-15
NOMC
BOMC
POMC
OMC
826
745
0.76
0.50
0.89
0.36
0.57
0.12
0.04
0.03
0.04
0.01
7.5
3.1
4.0
2.7
3.2
848
1092
846
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The elemental composition of the surface layer of the different OMC materials was determined by X-ray
photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results confirm that the doping with B, N and P was successful, though in a
different extent for each element (Table 2). Although phosphorus has the largest mismatch in size with carbon, with
our specific synthesis method it was the most efficiently incorporated into the final material, followed by nitrogen
and finally boron. In literature, nitrogen is generally more easily incorporated, which is to be expected based on its
similar size compared to carbon.33,51 Possibly phosphorus was more easily incorporated into the final material
because the structure of its precursor (tris(4-methoxyphenyl)phosphine) more closely resembles that of graphitic
carbon when compared to that of the other precursors, but also because phosphate species can form at the edge of
the structure (see Scheme 2). The low doping level of boron, on the other hand, can be explained based on its
preferential configuration inside the carbon framework, namely replacing a carbon atom in the sp² carbon lattice.
Compared to nitrogen and phosphorus, which can also be incorporated at the edges or at defect sites, B
incorporation is therefore bound to be more difficult.51 Further discussion of the XPS data is provided in section 3.2.
Table 2. Surface composition of (doped) OMCs in wt% as determined by XPS.
N (wt%)
2.7
B (wt%)
P (wt%)
C (wt%)
85
O (wt%)
11
NOMC
BOMC
POMC
OMC
/
1.1
/
/
/
0.3
92
5.5
0.4
6.2
/
76
18
0.1
/
91
8.6
Based on these characterisation results, we can conclude that all the doped OMCs display the desired chemical,
structural and textural features for the targeted electrocatalytic application.
3.1 Electrocatalytic performance of the doped OMCs in the reduction of nitrobenzene
Linear Sweep Voltammetry (LSV) is typically used to obtain the first ranking of different electrocatalysts in terms of
activity (onset potential and generated current density) for a specific reaction, which in this case is the reduction of
nitrobenzene. LSV experiments were performed in a half cell setup employing 5 mM nitrobenzene in 0.3 M HClO4 in
ethanol. The potential of the working electrode was varied from -0.2 to -1.8 V vs. Fc/Fc+ at four different rotation
speeds (500 to 2000 rpm, Fig. S2 to S5).
0
-5
-10
-15
NOMC
POMC
blank
BOMC
OMC
-20
-25
-1.6
-1.4
-1.2
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
Potential (V) vs. Fc/Fc+
Figure 2. LSV plots of NOMC, BOMC, POMC, OMC and blankNOMC, recorded in 5 mM nitrobenzene and 0.3 M HClO4
in ethanol at a scan rate of 5 mVs-1 and with a rotation speed of 2000 rpm and corrected for the iR drop.
The LSV results (summarised in Fig. 2 and Table 3), prove that all the OMC materials are active electrocatalysts for
the reduction of nitrobenzene, thus demonstrating our starting hypothesis that a metal centre is not strictly needed
to promote this reaction. Two main observations can be made about the four investigated electrocatalysts based on
these LSV data. First of all, the electrocatalysts could be ranked in terms of onset potential, for which the least
negative value was observed with POMC, followed by NOMC, OMC and finally BOMC (Table 3). Since a less negative
onset potential corresponds to a lower overpotential, the reaction over the POMC involved a lower activation
energy, which means that its sites are more active in initiating the reduction of nitrobenzene. On the other hand,
BOMC displayed the most negative onset potential, but led to the highest current density, followed by NOMC, OMC
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and POMC (Table 3). This signifies that the active sites in BOMC, although less easily activated, lead to faster
reaction rates, resulting in a faster reduction. NOMC and OMC display intermediate values for onset potential and
current density. Finally, for all the electrocatalysts the absence of a clear plateau in the LSV curves suggests that
more than one chemical is produced at the same time over this class of materials. This first set of results
demonstrates that doping of OMC has a marked influence on the electrocatalytic behaviour of the materials.
However, the results discussed so far do not include any information on the selectivity of the electrocatalysts. To
gain information on the selectivity, Koutécky-Levich (K-L) plots were constructed based on the data from the LSV
experiments performed at different rotation speeds. The Koutécky-Levich plots for the NOMC electrocatalyst are
presented in Fig.3, those for the other materials can be found in the ESI (S6 to S8).
0
-0.70 V
-0.05
-0.75 V
-0.80 V
-0.1
-0.85 V
-0.15
-0.2
0
0.05
0.1
ω-1/2 (rad/s)-1/2
0.15
Figure 3. Koutécky-Levich plots (J-1 vs. ω-1/2) of NOMC at a potential interval from -0.70 to -0.85 V vs. Fc/Fc+.
Based on these plots, it is possible to determine
intercept. The number of exchanged electrons allows a first evaluation of the selectivity of the electrocatalysts in
the reduction of nitrobenzene. To have a high selectivity towards aniline, the value for should be as close as
n from the slope and the kinetic current density (JK) from the
n
possible to 6 (see Scheme 1). The kinetic current density is a measure of the activity of the electrocatalysts.
Particularly, when comparing two electrocatalysts for which the number of exchanged electrons is the same, a
higher kinetic current density is a direct indication of a higher electron transfer rate constant. The similarity of the
slopes in the K-L plots (Fig. 3 and S6-8) indicates that the value for
potential window, which implies that the selectivity of the reduction reaction does not change significantly in this
potential range. The values for , JK, onset potential and half-wave potential are summarised in Table 3 for the
n remains almost constant in the investigated
n
electrocatalysts under investigation. The half-wave potential (E1/2) is correlated both with the onset potential and
the current density: a more positive value is the result either of a higher kinetic current density (as in the case of
BOMC) or of a more positive onset potential (as in the case of POMC). The fact that E1/2 for NOMC, BOMC and
POMC are very similar is thus caused by different factors in each case. This also implies that a more balanced and
detailed evaluation of the activity of these electrocatalysts can be obtained on the basis of the onset potentials and
of the kinetic current densities, rather than of the half-wave potentials.
Table 3. Summary of the electrocatalytic performance of the different OMC electrocatalysts. Note: the reported
n
) ≤ 0.3, SD(JK) ≤ 0.7 mA cm-2,
values are the average of at least 2 measurements. The standard deviations are SD(
SD(Eonset) = 0.01 V and SD(E1/2) = 0.01 V.
Electrocatalyst n @ -0.75 JK @ -0.75 V
Onset
potential (V)
-0.31
E1/2 (V)
V
(mA cm-2)
-33
NOMC
BOMC
POMC
OMC
6.0
7.5
5.8
6.0
-0.62
-0.61
-0.62
-0.67
-110
-0.39
-9.5
-0.24
-16
-0.37
Comparing the results summarised in Table 3, it can be concluded that the best electrocatalyst that was produced in
this study is NOMC, since the average number of transferred electrons ( = 6.0) suggests an excellent selectivity to
aniline, and the activity in terms of current density is much higher compared to the other two electrocatalysts for
which is also around 6, i.e. POMC and OMC. BOMC reached the highest kinetic current densities but its selectivity
is expected to be inferior due to the too high value of
n
n
n
, which suggests that aniline was partially reduced further to
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cyclohexylamine (Scheme 1). It is also worth noting that OMC, which was prepared without a doping element as B,
N or P, still displayed a relevant activity in the reduction of nitrobenzene.
3.2 Correlation between electrocatalytic behaviour and physicochemical properties
The physicochemical properties of the OMC materials that are expected to have a major influence on their
electrocatalytic performance in the reduction of nitrobenzene are: (1) the nature of the doping element, its content
and configuration, (2) the specific surface area and pore size of the material and (3) the degree of graphitisation.34
The latter can be estimated by Raman spectroscopy, which also provides information about the amount of defects
and disordered structures in the material. After deconvolution of the Raman spectra (Table 4 and Fig. 4 and S9),
four broad peaks could be distinguished: (i) a peak at 1200 cm-1, attributed to aliphatic species, (ii) a peak at 1350
cm-1, usually referred to as the D-band, which is correlated with defects at the edges of the graphitic domain, (iii) a
peak at 1510 cm-1 (A-band), originating from heteroatoms or five-membered rings and, (iv) a peak at 1600 cm-1 (G-
band), which is assigned to vibration modes of sp² C atoms in an ideal graphitic plane.34 The presence of the latter is
thus a clear indication of the formation of a graphitic carbon structure.34 Compared to an ideal graphitic lattice, this
peak is slightly shifted to lower wavenumbers as a consequence of the electron delocalisation caused by the
incorporation of doping elements inside the carbon framework.52
Figure 4. Deconvoluted Raman spectra of BOMC (A) and POMC (B). The Raman spectra of NOMC and OMC can be
found in Fig. S6 in the ESI.
Table 4. Summary of parameters determined by deconvolution of the Raman spectra.
Sample
AD/AG
FWHM D-
band
141
Area % of A-
band
15
NOMC
BOMC
POMC
OMC
1.16
1.05
1.35
1.10
123
10
145
17
134
14
The relative degree of graphitisation can be estimated through various parameters determined from the Raman
spectra: the ratio between the areas of the D and the G band (AD/AG) is inversely proportional to the degree of
graphitisation; a lower full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the D-band and also a smaller area of the A-band
correspond to a higher degree of order.4,34,53 The values of these parameters for the studied OMC materials are
reported in Table 4. The incorporation of boron results in the highest degree of graphitisation, and the AD/AG,
FWHMD-band, AA-band(%) values of BOMC are even lower compared to those of the OMC material, which was prepared
without adding any dopant. It is inferred that the presence of boron promotes the formation of a graphitic carbon
structure, in agreement with the observations reported by Choi and co-workers.54 Moreover, the lower dopant
content in BOMC compared to POMC and NOMC observed by XPS (Table 2) is also likely to have played a role in the
higher graphitisation degree of BOMC. This can be understood considering that the doping elements have different
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size from C atoms and thus create defect sites. Additionally, since the difference in size between phosphorus (106
pm) and carbon (77 pm) is much larger than that between boron (82 pm) or nitrogen (75 pm) and carbon,
phosphorus tends to be located slightly above the carbon framework. This results in a more distorted structure and,
therefore, can account for the lowest degree of graphitisation observed for POMC (i.e. for the highest values for
each of the parameters in Table 4).51
The specific surface areas of all the materials synthesised in this work are high, ranging from 745 m² g-1 for NOMC to
1092 m² g-1 for POMC (Table 1). All materials have the desired narrow pore size distribution in the mesoporous
range (average pore size between 2.7 nm for POMC to 4.0 nm for BOMC – see Table 1 and Figure 1 and S1). These
features are expected to grant a good accessibility of the active sites of the electrocatalysts. When comparing the
different OMC materials, no specific correlation was found between these structural and textural properties and the
electrocatalytic performances. This suggests that even the lowest specific surface area of the series (NOMC) is
sufficiently high to guarantee an optimum accessibility of the active sites, and that for these OMC materials the
nature of the doping elements and the graphitisation degree become the factors determining the differences in
catalytic behaviour.
Characterisation by XPS did not only provide information about the loading of each doping element in BOMC,
NOMC and POMC (vide supra) but also evidenced that all the prepared materials display a significant content of
oxygen, which most likely originates from the exposure of the electrocatalysts to air during the thermal treatments.
The O content varies from 5.5 wt% in BOMC up to 18 wt% in POMC (Table 2). It can be inferred that O atoms are
more readily incorporated in OMCs with a lower degree of graphitisation (BOMC has the highest and POMC the
lowest degree of order - see Table 4) as a consequence of the preferential incorporation of oxygen at the edges or
at defect sites.55,56 It is also worth mentioning that even in the absence of N during the synthesis, a small fraction of
N was found in BOMC, POMC and OMC (Table 2). This is most likely due to a minor contamination from previous
uses in the tubes used for the pyrolysis step. No signals due to transition metals were observed by XPS. Additional
elemental analysis of POMC by a technique with a lower detection limit as X-ray fluorescence (XRF), indicated that
only traces of Fe, Ni and Cu were present in the material (≤ 0.01 wt% of each transition metal, see Table S1). These
values are significantly lower compared to the transition metal impurities found in other carbon materials used in
electrocatalysis (for example, carbon nanotubes contain typically 0.1-0.5 wt% of iron57 and 0.01 to 0.1 wt% of other
transition metals58). These data imply that the OMCs cannot be considered as strictly metal-free materials, but the
amounts of adventitious transition metals are so low that these impurities are expected to have only a minor
influence, if any, on the electrocatalytic performance. This hypothesis is supported by the marked difference in
activity and selectivity between the different OMCs (see Table 3) and by the role of the dopants on the
electrocatalytic behaviour ascertained by DFT simulations (vide infra).
XPS also provides valuable information about the configuration of the different elements, which is expected to play
a role in defining the electrocatalytic behaviour of the OMC materials. The configurations are obtained by
deconvoluting the high resolution signals characteristic of each element (Fig. 5). The N 1s signal is generally
deconvoluted into four individual peaks that are attributed to pyridinic N (≈398.7 eV), pyrrolic N (≈400.5 eV),
graphitic N (≈401.9 eV) and oxidised pyridinic N (> 402.8 eV).34,51 In the NOMC material, the largest fraction of N
substituted carbon in the sp²-C plane (graphitic N, 54%), followed by pyridinic N (33%), oxidised pyridinic N (9.8%)
and pyrrolic N (3.3%). The oxidised pyridinic N species likely originate from exposure to air of the pyridinic N sites.
The B 1s signal of BOMC could be deconvoluted into two peaks, at 200.5 eV (39%) and at 198.5 eV (61%), which are
assigned to graphitic B (or boron replacing carbon in hexagonal rings) and to B located in the conjugated π-system
but at internal defects or edges (see Scheme 2).59 The latter bear a resemblance to borabenzene, which is a strong
Lewis acid. The P 2p signal of POMC was deconvoluted into two distinct peaks, one assigned to the P-C bonds (132.6
eV, 64%) and one to P-O bonds (134.9 eV, 36%), in line with the relatively high O content observed in this material.
Phosphorus can be found either in the bulk of the carbon structure or at the edges, although in the latter location P
is expected to be prone to oxidation.60,61 The P-O configuration is generally attributed to oxidised P atoms that
originate from exposure to air of the P sites in the carbon structure, or to -PO(OH)2 functional groups (see
Scheme 2).43,60,61
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Table 5. Oxygen configuration of the different electrocatalysts as determined by deconvolution of the O 1s XPS
spectra. a C-O and P-O species; b C=O and P=O species.
% C-O
77
% C=O
18
% O-C=O
4.8
NOMC
BOMC
POMC
OMC
59
29
12
85a
76
12b
15
3.3
5.5
Figure 5. Deconvoluted high resolution N 1s (NOMC), B 1s (BOMC), P 2p (POMC) and O 1s (OMC) XPS signals.
Finally, the O 1s XPS signals were deconvoluted for all the studied materials (Fig. 5 and Fig. S10 in the ESI). In all
cases, three distinct peaks were found: one for C-O species (531.5 eV), one for C=O species (532.6 eV) and a final
one for O-C=O species (533.8 eV).34 For POMC, the peak at 531.5 eV can also be due to P-O species and the peak at
532.6 eV to P=O species.34,62 The actual presence of these P-O and P=O is strongly supported by the P-O peak that
was identified by deconvoluting the P 2p signal. For all materials, the C-O species make up the largest fraction,
followed by C=O and O-C=O (Table 5).
The results of the detailed characterisation of the OMC materials were combined with Density Functional Theory
(DFT) calculations to explain the performance of the different electrocatalysts in the reduction of nitrobenzene. The
electrocatalytic activity of carbon materials doped with P, B or N is generally attributed to the local disruption of the
electroneutrality of pure carbon materials.63 The difference in electronegativity between doping element and the
neighbouring carbon atoms leads to the creation of a partial positive charge on the more electropositive element
and of a partial negative charge on the more electronegative element. The positively charged sites can act as
catalytic sites by interacting with nitrobenzene and thus promoting its subsequent reduction.2,34,51 B and P are more
electropositive than C, whereas N is more electronegative. On the other hand, N and P contain one more electron in
the valence shell compared to C, whereas B contains one less electron than C in the valence shell. Therefore, each
doping element is expected to have a distinct effect on the electrocatalytic performance of the doped OMCs. First
of all, phosphorus and nitrogen significantly shift the onset potential to more positive values compared to the
undoped OMC (oxygen incorporation is not considered as doping in this context). On the other hand, boron-doping
generates an electrocatalyst with a higher overpotential (i.e. more negative onset potential). In order to explain the
trend in the overpotential values, DFT calculations were performed by using a graphene layer to model the surface
of the doped OMC. The effect of doping was studied by examining how the electronic structure of the graphene
layer is altered by the presence of B, N and P atoms in graphitic positions. Figure 6 compares the density of states
(DOS) and the projected density of states (PDOS) of undoped graphene (top panel) with those of B-, N- or P-doped
systems (from the second to the fourth panel). In pure graphene, the Fermi energy (EF), represented by dashed line
located at 0 eV, coincides with the Dirac point located at K and K’ points of the first Brillouin zone of the band
structure reported in Fig. S11. In the B-doped graphene used to simulate the BOMC surface, the EF shifts down in
energy, falling into the graphene valence band. Electrons from the π-band of graphene are trapped in electronic
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states originating from the B atoms and appearing -0.89 eV below the Fermi level of pure graphene, as shown by
the PDOS (blue curve of the second panel of Fig. 6). In contrast, when graphitic N is introduced in graphene, EF
moves up in energy and is found at +0.93 eV with respect to EF of pure graphene. This means that N atoms donate
electrons to the graphene conduction bands. Indeed, N atoms generate states close to EF (Fig. 6, third panel), which
originate from the hybridisation of nitrogen orbitals with π∗ states of graphene. A similar trend but with a more
pronounced upward EF shift (larger than 1 eV) was found when graphitic-like P atoms were introduced in graphene
(Fig. 6, fourth panel). These DTF data confirm that B atoms in graphene act as electron acceptors (p-type dopant)
whereas N and P atoms act as electron donors (n-type doping), causing the observed downwards (B-doping) or
upwards (N- and P-doping) shift of EF compared to the EF reference level of pure graphene. The lower the Fermi
level, the higher the ionisation potential of a material, thus indicating that it is easier to extract electrons from P-
doped graphene, followed by N-doped graphene, pure graphene and finally B-doped graphene. These results
explain the trend of the onset potential values measured experimentally (Table 3).
C pdos
total dos
B pdos
EF = -0.89 eV
EF = +0.93 eV
N pdos
EF = +1.05 eV
P pdos
-14 -12 -10 -8
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
Energy (eV)
Figure 6. Density of states (DOS) and the projected density of states (PDOS) of pure graphene (top panel) and B-, N-
or P-doped graphene with the doping element in graphitic configuration (second, third and fourth panel,
respectively).
The trend of kinetic current density is totally different from that observed for the onset potentials: boron-doping
generates active sites that lead to much higher reaction rates (higher JK) over BOMC compared to the other OMC
systems. This electrocatalytic behaviour could be explained assuming that BOMC has very active catalytic sites or
the highest number of active sites but also that such sites give the highest value for the number of exchanged
electrons. The latter is true (n = 7.5, see Table 3), but the difference compared to the other electrocatalysts is not
such as to justify the remarkably higher kinetic current density observed for BOMC (Table 3). It is difficult to
estimate the number and intrinsic activity of the catalytic sites in the doped OMC materials because the activity
does not only depend on the dopant content but also on its configuration. However, the fact that BOMC displays
the highest kinetic current density while having the lowest dopant content (Table 2) suggests that both
configurations of B observed by XPS are highly active sites for nitrobenzene reduction. The trends in kinetic current
density can be rationalised considering the difference in the partial positive charge density that is generated on B, P
or C (in the case of N-doping) and taking into account that the larger is the partial positive charge, the faster the
reduction is expected to proceed.34,51 From theoretical calculations performed in the literature, the partial positive
charge decreased from 0.62 on B to 0.28 on C (next to N) to 0.21 on P.64–66 This trend is in line with the observed
trends in kinetic current density (Table 3). Another factor that most likely contributed to the high JK over BOMC is its
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higher graphitisation degree, proven by Raman spectroscopy. A highly graphitic material is more conductive
compared to materials with a lower degree of graphitisation and, therefore, its electron transport is faster and a
higher reduction rate can be achieved.34 The second highest kinetic current density among the studied OMC
electrocatalysts was observed with NOMC (Table 3). This is fully in line with the partial positive charge generated by
N-doping (see above) and the degree of graphitisation of NOMC estimated by Raman spectroscopy (see Table 4),
which are both characterised by intermediate values between those of BOMC and POMC. The undoped OMC
displayed only moderate activity compared to BOMC and NOMC, but the observed kinetic current is actually slightly
higher than that found over POMC (Table 3). This is a somewhat unexpected result because the only heteroatom in
this material is oxygen, which can get incorporated in functional groups but not into the graphitic structure.
Therefore, no disruption of the electroneutrality of the bulk carbon occurs (differently from the B-, N- and P-doped
materials) and the activity of undoped OMC materials is typically attributed to defect and edge sites devoid of
oxygen,56 though the possibility of a contribution by some of the O-containing functional groups (e.g. phenol)
cannot be excluded. The higher JK found over OMC compared to POMC can be also related to the higher degree of
graphitisation and thus to the higher electron conductivity of the former.51
Most of the studied electrocatalysts (NOMC, POMC and OMC) promoted the reduction of nitrobenzene by
transferring the number of electrons that is expected for the selective formation of the desired aniline as product (n
= 6). Only BOMC led to a higher average number of exchanged electrons (n = 7.5). This strongly suggests a further
reduction of aniline with formation of cyclohexylamine (vide infra). This is most likely due to the relatively large
partial positive charge generated by boron-doping, which imparts Lewis acid character to the sites, thus causing the
formed aniline (a weak Lewis base) to remain adsorbed on the electrocatalyst surface and thus to undergo further
reduction. A similar behaviour was also observed in the oxygen reduction reaction.67
3.3 Chronoamperometric study of BOMC and NOMC
The two most promising electrocatalysts identified in the LSV study, i.e. NOMC and BOMC, were investigated
further by means of cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The former technique allowed studying another
parameter that is important for the practical applicability of the electrocatalysts: the stability under operating
conditions. This parameter was evaluated by comparing the current density of the second cycle (after initial
stabilisation) with the 1000th cycle (Fig. 7). The rather small difference in current density after 1000 cycles indicates
a good degree of stability of the electrocatalysts under the employed conditions. This is a promising feature in view
of a possible application in a fuel cell for the cogeneration of aniline and electricity.
The chronoamperometric study provided very important information about the activity and selectivity of the
electrocatalysts on the basis of the GC analysis of the reaction medium at the end of the experiment (Table 6). The
nitrobenzene conversion achieved over NOMC (61%) is significantly higher than that over BOMC (30%) as a
consequence of the lower current generated over the latter throughout the experiment. This trend is opposite to
what would be expected based on the LSV study, in which higher current was generated over BOMC (Fig. 2 and
Table 3). Careful control experiments confirmed the correctness of these trends. The only difference in the
experimental conditions was the concentration of nitrobenzene, which was 5 mM in the LSV tests and 15 mM in the
chronoamperometric study. To investigate the observed behaviour in more detail, additional LSV measurements at
higher nitrobenzene concentrations (15 and 30 mM) were performed (Fig. S12). From these plots it could be
observed that the increase in current density for NOMC in the tests with higher nitrobenzene concentration is more
pronounced than for BOMC. This suggests that the various steps involved in the reduction of nitrobenzene (Scheme
1) occur at different rate on each of the two electrocatalysts, which would not be surprising if we consider the
rather different physicochemical features of the two materials. A difference in adsorption strength and conversion
rate for each of the compounds involved in the multi-step mechanism would imply that the rate law and thus the
effect of nitrobenzene concentration differ between the two electrocatalysts.33
The correctness of the conversion values obtained from the GC analysis was also confirmed by means of Faraday’s
law, which estimated the nitrobenzene conversion at 61% for NOMC and 29% for BOMC. The product distributions
observed at the end of the chronoamperometric test are reported in Table 6. The difference in selectivity between
NOMC and BOMC evidenced by the different n values obtained from the K-L analysis was confirmed by
chronoamperometry. NOMC achieved the expected and desired high selectivity towards aniline (87%), whereas
BOMC only reached a selectivity of 37% towards aniline. In accordance with its higher value for n, further reduction
of aniline to cyclohexylamine was observed over BOMC (selectivity of 37%). Besides a lower selectivity to aniline,
BOMC also results in a larger fraction of side-products, including nitrosobenzene (two-electron reduction),
azoxybenzene and para-ethoxyaniline. The latter two side-products are obtained through non-electrochemical
conversions of the unstable intermediate phenylhydroxylamine, which cannot be detected by means of
GC.1,12,13,28,68,69
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Table 6. Results of GC analysis after chronoamperometric experiment performed at -0.75 V vs. Fc/Fc+ in 15 mM
nitrobenzene in 0.3 M HClO4 ethanolic solution for 52 h at room temperature.
NOMC
61%
BOMC
30%
Conversion
Selectivity
Aniline
87%
0.0%
3.6%
5.4%
0.4%
3.3%
37%
37%
13%
4.0%
1.0%
7.7%
Cyclohexylamine
Nitrosobenzene
Para-ethoxyaniline
Azobenzene
Azoxybenzene
5
0
5
0
(A)
(B)
-5
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-10
-15
-20
Curve 2
Curve 1000
-0,6 -0,4
Curve 2
Curve 1000
-0,6 -0,4
-1,8
-1,6
-1,4
-1,2
-1,0
-0,8
-0,2
-1,8
-1,6
-1,4
-1,2
-1,0
-0,8
-0,2
Potential (V) vs. Fc/Fc+
Potential (V) vs. Fc/Fc+
Figure 7. Stability test of (A) NOMC and (B) BOMC by cyclic voltammetry. The potential was cycled between -0.2 and
-1.8 V vs. Fc/Fc+ at a scan rate of 100 mVs-1. Only the second (after initial stabilisation) and the last curve are
presented here. After 999 cycles, the measurement was paused and the solution was stirred to ensure a
homogeneous nitrobenzene concentration throughout the medium. Afterwards, the last scan was measured.
In summary, NOMC was identified as the most promising electrocatalyst for the reduction of nitrobenzene based on
the combination of its activity, selectivity and stability, which enabled to reach 61% conversion with 87% selectivity
towards the desired aniline after 52 h at room temperature. Only one other doped carbon material has been
reported in the literature as electrocatalyst for nitrobenzene reduction (N-doped diamond).32 However, the
comparison with the performance of our NOMC is made virtually impossible by the extremely different and much
less challenging conditions used in the literature report, in which the aim was to remove nitrobenzene pollution
from a solution and for which purpose much lower nitrobenzene concentration (0.81 mM vs. 15 mM in this work)
and much higher electrode surface area (400 mm² vs. 20 mm²) were employed. On the other hand, the
performance of our NOMC can be compared to the state-of-the-art non-noble metal-containing electrocatalysts for
this reaction, which were tested under analogous conditions.1,12,33 NOMC achieved enhanced activity and a much
higher selectivity towards aniline compared to Cu/CuxO nanoparticles supported on carbon nanotubes or on
activated carbon. This was demonstrated both by the increased n value (from 4 to 6) and by the much higher aniline
selectivity measured in the chronoamperometric tests. The NOMC electrocatalyst is also superior in terms of yield
and selectivity towards aniline compared to the previous optimum for this reaction, i.e. the recently reported
electrocatalyst prepared from activated carbon and polyaniline and containing highly dispersed CuxO/Cu species.33
With the purpose of shedding more light on the nature of the active sites of NOMC in the adsorption and
subsequent reduction of nitrobenzene, we performed DFT simulations of the interaction of nitrobenzene with the
surface of N-doped graphene systems in which N atoms were either in graphitic or pyridinic sites, i.e. the two most
abundant configurations based on the XPS results (vide supra). In the highest occupied orbital (state at the Fermi
level) of these N-doped materials, the electron density is mostly localised around the graphitic N and the pyridinic N
(Fig. 8.A and B). When nitrobenzene is added to the model, the lowest energy configuration is obtained if
nitrobenzene lays with the aromatic ring parallel to the doped graphene plane, with the nitro group in close
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proximity to the N atom (either graphitic or pyridinic). In particular, the two oxygen atoms of the nitro group point
towards two C atoms of graphene that are first or second neighbours of the N dopant (Fig. 8.C and D). The
calculated adsorption energy (ΔEads) for nitrobenzene is -0.54 eV and -0.52 eV with molecule-surface distance of
2.96 and 2.93 Å in the case of graphitic N and pyridinic N, respectively (Table S2). These adsorption geometries are
energetically more favourable compared to configurations with the aromatic ring perpendicular to the graphene
plane (Fig. S13 and Table S2). The role of N-doping is further proven by the significantly lower adsorption energy of
nitrobenzene on undoped graphene (-0.38 eV). Based on these DFT results, it can be concluded that both graphitic
N and pyridinic N atoms can generate catalytic sites for the reduction of nitrobenzene because the electrons that
are more easily extracted from the electrocatalyst are spatially localised in the region around the N dopants, where
the adsorption of nitrobenzene is also favoured.
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Figure 8. Electronic density isosurfaces of the highest occupied state of N-doped graphene (used to simulate the
NOMC surface) in which the N atoms are in graphitic (A) or pyridinic (B) configuration. Ball-and-stick representation
of the most stable adsorption geometries of nitrobenzene on N-doped graphene in which the N atoms are in
graphitic (C) or pyridinic (D) configuration [grey spheres represent C atoms, red spheres O atoms, blue spheres N
atoms and white spheres H atoms].
Based on a preliminary estimation, the NOMC is also competitive in terms of materials cost,70 further underlying the
benefits of this virtually metal-free electrocatalyst. The high activity and selectivity towards aniline are very
promising in the perspective of application of NOMC in a fuel cell for the cogeneration of this industrially relevant
product and electricity.
Conclusions
Ordered mesoporous carbons doped with boron, nitrogen or phosphorus were synthesised, thoroughly
characterised and tested as electrocatalysts for the reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline in a half-cell setup. The
developed nanocasting synthesis methods using SBA-15 silica as hard template were successful in producing the
targeted mesoporous materials with high specific surface area (up to 1092 m²/g), uniform pore sizes and containing
the desired doping elements. The performance of the electrocatalysts was ranked on the basis of their onset
potential, kinetic current densities and number of exchanged electrons. Remarkably, the ranking of the different
materials differed for each these electrochemical parameters. Based on the onset potential, POMC emerged as the
best material, while BOMC outperformed the other electrocatalysts with respect to kinetic current density. Finally,
NOMC and OMC reached the highest selectivity to aniline, based on the number of exchanged electrons. DFT
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simulations indicated that the difference in the onset potential between the doped OMC materials can be
understood in terms of the modification induced in the ionisation potential of the catalyst upon doping with
different atomic species. This ultimately effects the energy required to extract electrons from the OMCs during the
reduction reaction. Combining the different catalytic properties, NOMC was identified as the material with the best
electrocatalytic performance in the target reaction. In a chronoamperometry test, this electrocatalyst achieved a
conversion of 61% with a selectivity of 87% towards aniline after 52 h of reaction at -0.75 V vs. Fc/Fc+ in 0.3M HClO4
at room temperature. This corresponds to the highest yield and selectivity towards aniline ever reported for the
electrochemical reduction of nitrobenzene under comparable conditions. DFT results showed that doping with N
atoms generates actives sites for promoting the adsorption and subsequent reduction of nitrobenzene.
In conclusion, NOMC was identified as a relatively affordable material with highly promising electrocatalytic
performance for the perspective application in a fuel cell allowing the cogeneration of electricity and aniline as a
valuable commodity product.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge sponsoring from Flemish agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT) in the
frame of a Ph.D. grant (ND). We thank Prof. Jin Won Seo and the MTM department of the KU Leuven for their
support in the TEM analyses and the Flemish Hercules Stichting for its support in HER/08/25, Gina Vanbutsele (KU
Leuven) for helping with the N2 physisorption measurements and Léon Rohrbach (University of Groningen) for
support with the XRF measurements.
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A green electrochemical alternative: doped ordered mesoporous carbons are active and selective
electrocatalysts for the reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline.