Metal air battery has captured the spotlight recently as a promising class of sustainable energy storage for the future energy systems. Metal air batteries offer many attractive features such as high energy density, environmental benignity, as well as ease of fuel storage and handling. In addition, wide range of selection towards different metals exists where different energy capacity can be achieved via careful selection of different metals. The most energy dense systems of metal-air battery include lithium-air, aluminum-air and zinc-air. Despite the choice of metal electrode, oxygen reduction (ORR) occurs on the air electrode and oxidation occurs on the metal electrode. The oxidation of metal electrode is a relatively facile reaction compared to the ORR on the air electrode, making latter the limiting factor of the battery system. The sluggish ORR kinetics greatly affects the power output, efficiency, and lifetime of the metal air battery. One solution to this problem is the use of active, affordable and stable catalyst to promote the rate of ORR. Currently, platinum nanoparticles supported on conductive carbon (Pt/C) are the best catalyst for ORR. However, the prohibitively high cost and scarcity of platinum raise critical issues regarding the economic feasibility and sustainability of platinum-based catalysts. Cost reduction via the use of novel technologies can be achieved by two approaches. The first approach is to reduce platinum loading in the catalyst formulation. Alternatively platinum can be completely eliminated from the catalyst composition. The aim of this work is to identify and synthesize alternative catalysts for ORR toward metal air battery applications without the use of platinum re other precious metals (i.e., palladium, silver and gold). Non-precious metal catalysts (NPMC) have received immense international attentions owing to the enormous efforts in pursuit of novel battery and fuel cell technologies. Different types of NPMC such as transition metal alloys, transition metal or mixed metal oxides, chalcogenides have been investigated as potential contenders to precious metal catalysts. However, the performance and stability of these catalysts are still inferior in comparison. Nitrogen-doped carbon materials (NCM) are an emerging class of catalyst exhibiting great potential towards ORR catalysis. In comparison to the metal oxides, MCM show improved electrical conductivity. Furthermore, NCM exhibit higher activity compared to chalcogenides and transition metal alloys. Additional benefits of NCM include the abundance of carbon source and environmental benignity. Typical NCM catalyst is composed of pyrolyzed transition metal macrocycles supported by high surface area carbon. These materials have demonstrated excellent activity and stability. However, the degradation of these catalysts often involves the destruction of active sites containing the transition metal centre. To further improve the durability and mass transport of NCM catalyst, a novel class of ORR catalyst based on nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNT) is investigated in a series of studies. The initial investigation focuses on the synthesis of highly active NCNT using different carbon-nitrogen precursors. This study investigated the effect of using cyclic hydrocarbon (pyridine) and aliphatic hydrocarbon (ethylenediamine) towards the formation and activity of NCNT. The innate structure of the cyclic hydrocarbon promotes the formation of NCNT to provide higher product yield; however, the aliphatic hydrocarbon promotes the formation of surface defects where the nitrogen atoms can be incorporated to form active sites for ORR. As a result, a significant increase in the ORR activity of 180 mV in half-wave potential is achieved when EDA was used as carbon-nitrogen precursor. In addition, three times higher limiting current density was observed for the NCNT synthesized from ethylenediamine. Based on the conclusion where highly active NCNT was produced from aliphatic hydrocarbon, similar carbon-nitrogen precursors with varying carbon to nitrogen ratio in the molecular structure (ethylenediamine, 1, 3-diaminopropane, 1, 4-diaminobutane) were adapted for the synthesis of NCNT. The investigation led to the conclusion that higher nitrogen to carbon ratio in the molecular structure of the precursors benefits the formation of active NCNT for ORR catalysis. The origin of such phenomena can be correlated with the higher relative nitrogen content of the resultant NCNT synthesized from aliphatic carbon precursor that provided greater nitrogen to carbon ratio. As the final nitrogen content increased in the molecular structure, the half-wave potential of the resultant NCNT towards ORR catalysis was increased by 120 mV. The significant improvement hints the critical role of nitrogen content towards ORR catalysis. To further confirm the correlation between the nitrogen content and ORR activity, another approach was used to control the final nitrogen content in the resultant NCNT. In the third investigation, a carbon-nitrogen precursor (pyridine) was mixed with a carbon precursor (ethanol) to form an admixture. The relative proportion of the two components of the admixture was varied to produce NCNT with different nitrogen content. By adopting this methodology, potential effect of different carbon-nitrogen precursors on the formation of NCNT can be eliminated since the same precursors were used for NCNT synthesis. Based on the electrochemical evaluations, the nitrogen content can be positively correlated to ORR activity. Among the NCNT samples, 41% higher limiting current density was achieved for 0.7 at. % increase in overall nitrogen content. Furthermore, the selectivity of the NCNT catalyst with higher nitrogen content favours the production of water molecule—the favourable product in metal-air battery by 43%. ORR catalyst is an outer-sphere electron transfer reaction whereby the reactants interact with the surface of catalysts. Consequently, the surface structure can be a determining factor towards the ORR activity of the NCNT in addition to the nitrogen content. In the forth investigation, the surface structure of NCNT was tailored to differentiate the ORR activity of smooth and rugged surface while controlling the overall nitrogen content to be similar. NCNT having different surface structures but similar nitrogen content (approximately 2.7 to 2.9 at. %) were successfully synthesized using different synthesis catalysts. Comparison of the two NCNT catalysts showing different surface structure resulted in a 130 mV increased in half-wave potential favouring the NCNT with more rugged surface structure. This study provided insights to the potential effects of synthesis catalyst towards directing the surface structure and the ORR activity of NCNT. Through a series of studies, the important parameters affecting the ORR performance of NCNT were elucidated and the most active NCNT catalyst synthesized was used for testing in a prototype zinc-air battery. The fifth study evaluated the performance of NCNT catalyst in different concentrations of alkaline electrolyte and at different battery voltage. An increase in the electrolyte’s alkaline strength improved the battery performance to a certain degree until the increasing viscosity impeded the performance of the battery system. The zinc-air battery employing NCNT as ORR catalyst produced a maximum battery power density of 69.5 mWcm-2 in 6M potassium hydroxide. The fifth study illustrated the great potential of NCNT towards the ORR catalysis for metal-air batteries. In combination, the series of investigations presented in this document provide a comprehensive study of a novel material and its application towards ORR catalysis in metal air batteries. Specifically, this report provides insights into the fundamentals of NCNT synthesis; the origins of ORR activity and the optimal operating conditions of NCNT in a prototype zinc-air battery. The excellent performance of NCNT warrants further studies of this material in greater details, and the information presented in this document will create a basis for future investigations towards ORR catalysis.

Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells have been viewed as promising power source candidates for transport, stationary, and portable applications due to their high efficiency and low emissions. The platinum is the most commonly used catalyst material for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode of PEM fuel cells; however, the limited abundance and high cost of platinum hinder the large-scale commercialization of fuel cells. To overcome this limitation, it is necessary to enhance the catalyst utilization in order to improve the catalytic activity while decreasing or eliminating the use of platinum. The material on which the catalyst is supported is important for the high dispersion and narrow distribution of Pt nanoparticles as well as other non-precious metal active sites, and these characteristics are closely related to electrocatalytic activity of the catalysts. The support materials can influence the catalytic activity by interplaying with catalytic metals, and the durability of the catalyst is also greatly dependent on its support. A variety of support materials like carbons, oxides, carbides, and nitrides have been employed as supports materials for fuel cell catalysts, and much effort has been devoted to the synthesis of the novel carbon supports with large surface area and/or pore volume, including nanostructured carbons such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), carbon nanofibers, and mesoporous carbon. These novel nanostructured carbon materials have achieved promising performance in terms of catalytic activity and durability. However, there is still enormous demand and potential for the catalysts to improve. In the first study, non-precious metal catalysts (NPMC) for the oxygen reduction reaction were synthesized by deposition of Fe/Co-Nx composite onto nanoporous carbon black with ethylenediamine (EDA) as nitrogen precursor. Two different nanoporous carbon supports, Ketjen Black EC300J (KJ300) and EC600JD (KJ600), were used as catalyst support for the non-precious catalysts. The results obtained from the optimized FeCo/EDA-carbon catalyst, using KJ600 as the support, showed improved onset, half-wave potentials and superior selectivity than that of the KJ300. Similarly, the catalyst showed good performance in the hydrogen-oxygen PEM fuel cell. At a cell voltage of 0.6 V the fuel cell managed to produce 0.37 A/cm2 with a maximum power density of 0.44 W/cm2. Fuel cell life test at a constant voltage of 0.40 V demonstrated promising stability up to 100 h. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study indicated that pyridinic type nitrogen of the non-precious metal catalysts is critical for ORR catalytic activity and selectivity. These results suggest higher pore volume and surface area of carbon support could lead to higher nitrogen content providing more active sites for ORR and this type of catalyst has great potential used as a non-precious PEM fuel cell catalyst. In the second study, we report the development of a novel NPMC in acid electrolyte using pyrimidine-2,4,5,6-tetramine sulfuric acid hydrate (PTAm) as a nitrogen precursor and graphene nanosheets as catalyst supports. Graphene, consisting of a two-dimensional (2D) monolayer of graphitic carbon atoms, has been viewed as a promising candidate for the fuel cell catalyst support, due to its many intriguing properties such as high aspect ratios, large surface areas, rich electronic states, good electron transport, thermal/chemical stability and good mechanical properties. We investigate the effect of different pyrolysis temperatures on the catalysts’ ORR activity along with detailed surface analysis to provide insight regarding the nature of the ORR active surface moieties. This novel NPMC demonstrates promising electrocatalyst activity and durability superior to that of commercial catalyst for the ORR, rendering graphene nanosheets as a suitable replacement to traditional nanostructured carbon support materials. In the final study, we have developed Pt catalyst by combining the precious metal with nitrogen-doped activated graphene (N-AG) as the support. A transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of the catalyst shows uniform size and distribution of platinum nanoparticles on a graphene layer. This novel catalyst demonstrates superior electrocatalyst activity and durability over Pt/XC72 catalyst for ORR under the studied conditions, rendering graphene as an ideal replacement to traditional nanostructured carbon support materials. In summary, several catalyst samples were made using novel nanostructured support materials to improve the ORR performance. Several recommendations for future work were suggested in the last section of this work to further apply the knowledge and understanding of nanostructured support materials to design a highly active, durable, and low-cost NPMCs and platinum catalysts.

Graduation date: 1948

This study investigated the applicability of various analytical tools for the qualitative and quantitative characterization of nanophase electrocatalysts.

Potential thermophiles for ethanol production at elevated temperature were compared based on their kinetic performances. T. thermophilus HB27 demonstrated superior kinetics and its growth was not greatly affected when containing the recombinant plasmid pTEV231. Detailed kinetic studies demonstrated that it could utilize glucose and xylose in medium containing 0.5 % (w/v) yeast extract, and could produce low levels of L-lactate, acetate and ethanol. Kinetic evaluation of the newly isolated G. thermoglucosidasius M10EXG showed it could grow on fully defined media and coferment glucose and xylose. G. thermoglucosidasius M10EXG produced higher levels of products (acetate, and L-lactate) at about 2 g/l each, compared to T. thermophilus HB27 although ethanol levels were only 0.1-0.2 g/l in shake flask fermentations under partially aerobic conditions. Improved conditions for natural transformation of T. thermophilus HB27 were determined. Optimal conditions for electroporation of were: Milli-Q water washing of cells rather than with 10% (v/v) glycerol; an electrical field of 5 kV/cm; cell concentration of 1.4x1010 cells/ml; and a DNA concentration of 500 ng in 40 Fl (125 Fg/ml) which achieved a transformation efficiency of 3x103 transformants /Fg DNA. The chloramphenicol resistance (cat) and green fluorescence protein (gfp) genes from pCJS10 were cloned into an E. coli -- T. thermophilus shuttle vector (pMK18) as possible selection markers at elevated temperatures. Both genes were expressed in E. coli DH5H and it was demonstrated that gfp expression in E. coli DH5H decreased as temperature increased to 45oC. However following transformation of T. thermophilus HB27, no evidence of expression were found. The pet operon containing adhT (with its promoter) from G.thermoglucosidasius M10EXG and pdc from Z. mobilis Zm4, was cloned into pMK18 and low level expression in E. coli JM109 occurred with some increase in ethanol production. However the pet operon was not expressed in T. thermophilus with pMK18. For further gene expression studies, a new shuttle vector, pPOPTE (4-5 kb), based on the T. thermophilus plasmid pTEV231 (containing thermostable kanamycin resistance gene) was constructed. pPOPTE was capable of multiplying in both E. coli and T. thermophilus HB27 and demonstrated higher stability and transformation efficiency compared to pMK18.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Drexel University, 2008. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 218-233).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Akron, Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, 2006. / "May, 2006." Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed 01/15/2008) Advisor, Lu-Kwang Ju; Committee members, Bi-min Zhang Newby, Donald Ott; Department Chair, Lu-Kwang Ju; Dean of the College, George K. Haritos; Dean of the Graduate School, George R. Newkome. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-195). Also available in electronic version.

Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2006. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.