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

Highlights: • N-doped carbons (NC) were prepared by pyrolysis of carbon black with melamine. • N-doping decreased with the higher pyrolysis temperature. • Disorders/defects were pronounced with the NC-700 sample. • Graphitic N formation was promoted by pyrolysis of carbon black at 900°C. • NC-900 exhibited the minimum charge transfer resistance (@0.9V). This study presents detailed characterizations of the melamine-led nitrogen (N)-doped commercial carbon black (Vulcan XC 72R) pyrolyzed at different temperatures (600°C, 700°C, 800°C, 900°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.