Preparation and characterization of melamine-led nitrogen-doped carbon blacks at different pyrolysis temperatures

This study presents detailed characterizations of the melamine-led nitrogen (N)-doped commercial carbon black (Vulcan XC 72R) pyrolyzed at different temperatures (600 degrees C, 700 degrees C, 800 degrees C, 900 degrees C). Original carbon black was named as "C" and N-doped carbon blacks (numbers represent pyrolysis temperature) were named as "NC-600", "NC-700", "NC-800" and "NC-900" through the study. During the pyrolysis process, it was aimed at the N-doping of the carbon black by using melamine as an N source. Various physical characterizations such as Elemental Analysis, Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectroscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) Analysis, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and electrochemical characterizations such as Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) were performed to fully examine the N-doped carbon blacks which are frequently used in electrochemical applications in different fields and to make a contribution to the studies on N-doped carbon blacks.