AUTONOMOUS CREATION OF CORE-SHELL CHROMIUM-CARBON NANOMATERIALS FROM INDUSTRIAL BIO-WASTE FOR CATALYTIC APPLICATIONS

摘要

Carbon materials in many different forms and shapes play a major role in various fieldszz of science and technology including catalysis and energy storage applications. A variety of carbon nanomaterials have been prepared by different methods using various raw materials as the carbon sources. Among them the preparation of carbon nanomaterials from biomass waste could be a potential approach, because it is available in large quantities and is an environmental friendly renewable resource. Doping of carbon nanomaterials is known to improve their properties for various applications. Herein, we report the autonomous synthesis of carbon-encapsulated chromium core-shell nanomaterials using leather waste (chromium-complexed collagen) as the raw material. Detailed analysis of the formed core-shell nanomaterials revealed that the chromium based nanoparticle is buried inside the graphitized nanocarbon layers (Figure 1), which are self-doped with oxygen and nitrogen functionalities. The formed core-shell nanomaterials were found to exhibit significant electrical conductivity, magnetism and luminescence properties owing to the presence of chromium based nanoparticle core and self-doping of nanocarbon layers.