The Civil War for Irish Immigrants : A Study of Memoirs of the Irish Brigade

This paper analyzes three memoirs written by David P. Conyngham, William Corby and St. Clair A. Mulholland who joined the Irish Brigade which served in the Union Army in order to investigate how the Irish immigrants memorized the Civil War. The Irish Brigade was authorized in September 1861 thanks to the assistance of the Irish community in New York, and originally consisted of the 63rd, 69th and 88th New York regiments comprised predominantly of Irish immigrants. Under the command of Thomas F. Meagher, one of the Young Ireland in exile, the Irish Brigade fought many fierce battles, but virtually ceased to operate as a brigade after the battle of Fredericksburg, where the unit suffered fearsome casualties, because of having trouble in enlisting recruits. // Conyngham intended to leave behind him the “correct memories” of the Irish Brigade, which were characterized by Irish soldiers’ supreme loyalty to the Union and the oblivion of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Draft Riots. Corby added the solidarity among all the Christian soldiers to Conyngham’s “correct memories” because he was concerned about the revival of nativism caused by floods of new immigrants in the late 19th century and the decline of Liberals in the Catholic Church and intended to appeal for religious tolerance. Mulholland added the memory of the solidarity between born Americans and immigrants in the battlefields because he intended to reveal the role of immigrants in the American society in order to resist nativism

Electronic Effects of Nitrogen Atoms of Supports on Pt-Ni Rhombic Dodecahedral Nanoframes for Oxygen Reduction

Pt-based nanostructures immobilized on carbon supports have been widely used as electrocatalysts. Their catalytic activity can be improved by support modification including nitrogen doping and coating with nitrogen-containing polymers, where nitrogen atoms possibly interact with surface Pt atoms at a catalyst/support interface. To understand electronic effects of nitrogen-doped and polymer-coated carbon supports on the catalytic activity of Pt-based nanostructured catalysts, we prepared Pt3Ni nanoframes (NFs) supported on polybenzimidazole (PBI)-coated and uncoated carbon nanotubes for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and then compared their catalytic activities and electronic properties with those of NFs immobilized on nitrogen-doped and undoped carbon supports. Although both PBI-coating and nitrogen-doping approaches improved the catalytic activity of NFs, ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy revealed that nitrogen doping showed electronic effects on NFs, whereas PBI-coating showed almost no impact on the electronic state of NFs but stabilized Pt(OH)ad species under electrochemical conditions. Our studies demonstrate that difference in microscopic environments of nitrogen atoms at the catalyst/support interface is highly sensitive to the electronic effects of supports on Pt-based electrocatalysts

Enhancement of Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction Activity and Durability of Pt–Ni Rhombic Dodecahedral Nanoframes by Anchoring to Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Support

Pt-based nanostructured electrocatalysts supported on carbon black have been widely studied for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which occurs at the cathode in polymer electrolyte fuel cells. Because sluggish ORR kinetics are known to govern the cell performance, there is a need to develop highly active and durable electrocatalysts. The ORR activity of Pt-based electrocatalysts can be improved by controlling their morphology and alloying Pt with transition metals such as Ni. Improving the catalyst durability remains challenging and there is a lack of catalyst design concepts and synthetic strategies. We report the enhancement of the ORR activity and durability of a nanostructured Pt–Ni electrocatalyst by strong metal/support interactions with a nitrogen-doped carbon (NC) support. Pt–Ni rhombic dodecahedral nanoframes (NFs) were immobilized on the NC support and showed higher ORR electrocatalytic activity and durability in acidic media than that supported on a nondoped carbon black. Durability tests demonstrated that NF/NC showed almost no activity loss even after 50 000 potential cycles under catalytic conditions, and the Ni dissolution from the NFs was suppressed at the NC support, as confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis. Physicochemical measurements including surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy of surface-adsorbed CO revealed that the strong metal/support interactions of the NF with the NC support caused the downshift of the d-band center position of the surface Pt. Our findings demonstrate that tuning the electronic structure of nanostructured Pt alloy electrocatalysts via the strong metal/support interactions with heteroatom-doped carbon supports will allow the development of highly active and robust electrocatalysts