Issue 8, 2018

Emerging investigator series: dispersed transition metals on a nitrogen-doped carbon nanoframework for environmental hydrogen peroxide detection

Abstract

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a key species in many environmental processes such as the electro-Fenton system to remove organic pollutants in wastewater treatment. Traditional methods for measuring H2O2 are often complex and time-consuming. Due to their low cost and high catalytic activity, transition metals (TM) can be used as high-performance electrochemical sensing materials for detecting H2O2. However, the aggregation of metal atoms will severely limit their catalytic efficiency and exposure area. In this study, we explored a method to disperse TM homogeneously on a zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) derived nitrogen-doped carbon (N/C) nanoframework and used it as the electrocatalyst for detecting H2O2 in an electro-Fenton system. Cu and Mn were used as the examples. Benefitting from the homogeneously dispersed TM, the synthesized nanoframework with a low content of TM exhibits superior electrocatalytic activity and an anti-interference ability in detecting H2O2. It has a wide linear range (0.0005–50 mM for 1% Cu–N/C and 0.0001–50 mM for 1% Mn–N/C) and a low detection limit (0.047 μM for 1% Cu–N/C and 0.036 μM for 1% Mn–N/C). Using the synthesized nanoframework, a system for continuously detecting the H2O2 concentration in an electro-Fenton system in situ was presented. The reported method to fabricate such nanomaterials with a higher catalytic efficiency of TM has implications in other applications such as environmental treatment, catalysis, and energy conversion.

Graphical abstract: Emerging investigator series: dispersed transition metals on a nitrogen-doped carbon nanoframework for environmental hydrogen peroxide detection

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 may. 2018
Accepted
11 jul. 2018
First published
17 jul. 2018

Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2018,5, 1834-1843

Emerging investigator series: dispersed transition metals on a nitrogen-doped carbon nanoframework for environmental hydrogen peroxide detection

Z. Li, Y. Jiang, C. Liu, Z. Wang, Z. Cao, Y. Yuan, M. Li, Y. Wang, D. Fang, Z. Guo, D. Wang, G. Zhang and J. Jiang, Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2018, 5, 1834 DOI: 10.1039/C8EN00498F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements