Browsing by Author "Tovini, M. F."

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    Instability of a noncrystalline NaO2 film in Na-O2 batteries: The controversial effect of the RuO2 catalyst
    (American Chemical Society, 2018) Tovini, M. F.; Hong, M.; Park, J.; Demirtaş, M.; Toffoli, D.; Ustunel, H.; Byon, H. R.; Yılmaz, E.
    The unique electrochemical and chemical features of sodium-oxygen (Na-O2) batteries distinguish them from the lithium-oxygen (Li-O2) batteries. NaO2 as the main discharge product is unstable in the cell environment and chemically degrades, which triggers side products' formation and charging potential increment. In this study, RuO2 nanoparticles dispersed on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are used as the catalyst for Na-O2 batteries to elucidate the effect of the catalyst on these complex electrochemical systems. The RuO2/CNT contributes to the formation of a poorly crystalline and coating-like NaO2 structure during oxygen reduction reaction, which is drastically different from the conventional micron-sized cubic NaO2 crystals deposited on the CNT. Our findings demonstrate a competition between NaO2 and side products' decompositions for RuO2/CNT during oxygen evolution reaction (OER). We believe that this is due to the lower stability of a coating-like NaO2 because of its noncrystalline nature and high electrode/electrolyte contact area. Although RuO2/CNT catalyzes the decomposition of side products at a lower potential (3.66 V) compared to CNT (4.03 V), it cannot actively contribute to the main electrochemical reaction of the cell during OER (NaO2 → Na+ + O2 + e-) because of the fast chemical degradation of the film NaO2 to the side products. Therefore, tuning the morphology and crystallinity of NaO2 by a catalyst is detrimental for the Na-O2 cell performance and it should be taken into account for the future applications.
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    Nanohybrid structured RuO2/Mn2O3/CNF as a catalyst for Na-O2 batteries
    (Institute of Physics Publishing, 2018) Tovini, M. F.; Patil, B.; Koz, C.; Uyar, Tamer; Yılmaz, E.
    A 3D RuO2/Mn2O3/carbon nanofiber (CNF) composite has been prepared in this study by a facile two step microwave synthesis, as a bi-functional electrocatalyst towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). RuO2 nanoparticles with the mean size of 1.57 nm are uniformly distributed on Mn2O3 nano-rods grown on electrospun CNFs. The electrocatalytic activity of the composites are investigated towards ORR/OER under alkaline condition. The ternary RuO2/Mn2O3/CNF composite showed superior ORR activity in terms of onset potential (0.95 V versus RHE) and Tafel slope (121 mV dec-1) compared to its RuO2/CNF and Mn2O3/CNF counterparts. In the case of OER, the RuO2/Mn2O3/CNF exhibited 0.34 V over-potential value measured at 10 mA cm-2 and 52 mV dec-1 Tafel slope which are lower than those of the other synthesized samples and as compared to state of the art RuO2 and IrO x type materials. RuO2/Mn2O3/CNF also exhibited higher specific capacity (9352 mAh ) than CNF (1395 mAh ), Mn2O3/CNF (3108 mAh ) and RuO2/CNF (4859 mAh g carbon -1) as the cathode material in Na-O2 battery, which indicates the validity of the results in non-aqueous medium. Taking the benefit of RuO2 and Mn2O3 synergistic effect, the decomposition of inevitable side products at the end of charge occurs at 3.838 V versus Na/Na+ by using RuO2/Mn2O3/CNF, which is 388 mV more cathodic compared with CNF.