What can we learn by analyzing the edge sites of carbon materials?
Takashi Kyotani, Jun‐ichi Ozaki, Takafumi Ishii
Abstract
Because the chemical features of carbon materials strongly depend on the number and the type of edge sites, it is crucial to analyze them in order to understand their performance at the molecular level. For the analysis of carbon edge sites, temperature programmed desorption (TPD) has often been used, because it is simple but effective. Recently, a new type of TPD apparatus was developed by our group which can reach a TPD temperature as high as 1800 °C and has a very high sensitivity for the detection of desorbed gases, thereby enabling an analysis of all edge sites for various types of carbon materials, even natural graphite. Such a thorough analysis has helped with the discovery of many new findings on the structure of high-temperature treated carbons and a molecular-level understanding of a carbon/rubber interface, electrochemical degradation and catalysis in cellulose hydrolysis.