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Upper Limit of Nitrogen Content in Carbon Materials
Author(s) -
Zhang Shiguo,
Tsuzuki Seiji,
Ueno Kazuhide,
Dokko Kaoru,
Watanabe Masayoshi
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201410234
Subject(s) - nitrogen , molar ratio , carbon fibers , carbonization , content (measure theory) , materials science , limit (mathematics) , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , chemical engineering , environmental chemistry , organic chemistry , mathematics , composite material , composite number , mathematical analysis , engineering , catalysis , scanning electron microscope
Nitrogen‐doped carbon materials (NDCs) play an important role in various fields. A great deal of effort has been devoted to obtaining carbon materials with a high nitrogen content; however, much is still unknown about the structure of the nitrogen‐doped materials and the maximum nitrogen content possible for such compounds. Here, we demonstrate an interesting relationship between the N/C molar ratio and the N content of NDCs. The upper limit for the nitrogen content of NDCs that might be achieved was estimated and found to strongly depend on the carbonization temperature (14.32 wt % at 1000 °C and 21.66 wt % at 900 °C), irrespective of the precursor or preparation conditions. Simulations suggest that, especially in the carbon architectures obtained at high temperatures, nitrogen atoms are always located on separate hexagon moieties in a graphitic configuration, thereby yielding a critical N/C molar ratio very close to the value estimated from the experimental results.