Facile fabrication of N-doped graphene as efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction

Authors

Yongliang Liao, Shanghai Jiatong University
Yuan Gao, University of WollongongFollow
Shenmin Zhu, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Jusheng Zheng, Zhejiang University
Zhixin Chen, University of WollongongFollow
Chao Yin, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Xianghong Lou, Shanghai Jiatong University
Di Zhang, Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityFollow

RIS ID

103021

Publication Details

Liao, Y., Gao, Y., Zhu, S., Zheng, J., Chen, Z., Yin, C., Lou, X. & Zhang, D. (2015). Facile fabrication of N-doped graphene as efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 7 (35), 19619-19625.

Abstract

A facile bottom-up method is reported here for the fabrication of N-doped graphene for oxygen reduction. It consists of a two-step calcination strategy and uses α-hydroxy acids (AHAs) as carbon source and melamine as nitrogen source. Three different AHAs, malic acid, tartaric acid, and citric acid, were chosen as the carbon sources. The prepared N-doped graphenes have a typical thin layered structure with a large specific surface area. It was found that the N content in the obtained N-doped graphenes varies from 4.12 to 8.11 at. % depending on the AHAs used. All of the samples showed high performance in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The N-doped graphene prepared from citric acid demonstrated the highest electrocatalytic activity, which is comparable to the commercial Pt/C and exhibited good durability, attributing to the high pyridinic N content in the composite.