Electrochemical Performance of Carbon Onions Fabricated by Electric Arc‐Discharge Method

Abstract

Arc discharged carbon onions (CNOs) were purified through successive ignition, acid wash, surfactant‐assisted dispersion, filtration and centrifugation. Cyclic voltammetry of the multistage separated products with a ferro/ferricyanide redox probe was employed to measure the heterogeneous electron transfer (HET) rate. It was found that metal (nickel) encapsulating CNOs yielded in an HET rate about 60 times higher than that of hollow CNOs. The electrochemical performances of CNOs are interfered by the residual metal catalyst and nano‐graphitic debris, and are dependent on their varying morphology and structure. This work implicates that the metal encapsulating CNOs are applicable in the field of batteries or supercapacitors.

One-Step Synthesis of Chestnut-Like Magnetic CNOs@PANI with Microwedge Enhanced Electromagnetic Wave Absorption

“…10 Carbon nano-onions (CNOs), also known as "anionic fullerenes" or "multilayer fullerenes", were first discovered by Ugarte in 1993 through electron beam treatment of carbon smoke. 11 Various methods have been explored for CNOs preparation, such as arc discharge, 12 electrochemical syn-thesis, 13 and catalytic decomposition. 14 However, these methods have not been practical due to their high preparation cost and low production efficiency.…”