Phosphorous, nitrogen co-doped carbon from spent coffee grounds for fuel cell applications

Spent coffee grounds, which represents the vast solid residual matter generated from consumed coffee beans, requires proper reutilization. This work represents the production of an alternate material from spent coffee grounds to replace expensive metal based catalysts currently used as electrodes in fuel cells. A novel microwave assisted technique which is easy, rapid, and economical is utilized for the synthesis of Phosphorous, Nitrogen co-doped carbon (PNDC) from spent coffee grounds and ammonium polyphosphate. SEM analysis revealed that PNDC is composed of distinct, spherical shaped particles. PNDC has a BET surface area of approximate to 507 m(2) g(-1) and is predominantly mesoporous. XPS reveals that PNDC contains about 1.90% N and 3.02% P besides C and O. PNDC exhibits good O-2 reduction response in 0.1M KOH, which was found to be comparable to that of 20% Pt/C. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 41948.