Electrooxidation behavior of ethanol toward carbon microbead-encapsulated ZnO particles derived from coffee waste Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • AbstractCarbon microbead-encapsulated ZnO (CM-ZnO) particles have been synthesized from the spent coffee ground (SCG) by chemical activation with ZnCl2 followed by calcination at 700 in N2 environment. Interestingly, ZnCl2 can act as an activating agent as well as a precursor for ZnO particles. The structure of the core and shell of the CM-ZnO was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. Moreover, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) studies confirmed the presence of the encapsulated ZnO particles. The BrunauerEmmettTeller (BET) and BarrettJoynerHalenda (BJH) plots showed a well-developed porous structure with a specific surface area of 210 m2/g, average pore volume of 1.12 cm3/g, and an average pore radius of 31.7. The electrooxidation behavior of ethanol toward the synthesized CM-ZnO was then studied using cyclic voltammetry (CV) technique. For comparison, two types of modified electrodes were prepared: the first one with the non-activated SCG and the second one with the CM-ZnO. The electrochemical measurements of the prepared CM-ZnO demonstrated higher electrocatalytic activity with a current density of~35mA/cm2 at 0.4V vs. Ag/AgCl for ethanol electrooxidation in an alkaline medium. The electrochemical measurements specified that the presence of ZnO particles and the high surface area of the activated sample have a significant influence on electrooxidation activity. Therefore, the introduced CM-ZnO particles could be an alternative and effective non-precious electrocatalyst for ethanol electrooxidation.

published proceedings

  • JOURNAL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE-MATERIALS IN ELECTRONICS

author list (cited authors)

  • Ghouri, Z. K., Elsaid, K., Abdel-Wahab, A., Abdala, A., & Farhad, M. Z.

citation count

  • 8

complete list of authors

  • Ghouri, Zafar Khan||Elsaid, Khaled||Abdel-Wahab, Ahmed||Abdala, Ahmed||Farhad, Mohammad Zahid

publication date

  • May 2020