On the electrocatalytic activity of nitrogen-doped reduced graphene Oxide:Does the nature of nitrogen really control the activity towards oxygen reduction?

Journal of Chemical Sciences

Retna Raj C1¹  Sourav Bag¹ 

[1] Functional Materials and Electrochemistry Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721 302, India$$

关键词: Reduced graphene oxide;    nitrogen doping;    electrocatalysis;    oxygen reduction reaction;   

DOI  :  

来源: Indian Academy of Sciences

【 摘 要 】

Synthesis of metal-free electrocatalyst for the cathodic reduction of oxygen is of great interest forfuel cell and metal-air battery applications. The heteroatom-doped graphene/reduced graphene oxide (rGO)is very promising and the nitrogen-doped rGO (N-rGO) is emerging as a new inexpensive electrocatalyst foroxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Herein, we describe the effect of the chemical nature and amount of nitrogenin N-rGO towards ORR in acidic solution. Four different samples of N-rGO with different nitrogen contentwere synthesized by simple chemical route. The chemical nature and nitrogen content were analyzed with Xray photoelectron spectroscopic measurements. The electrocatalytic performance of the catalyst was examinedby cyclic and hydrodynamic voltammetric studies. All the N-rGO samples favor 4-electron pathway for thereduction of oxygen in acidic solution. The onset potential and kinetic current density depends on the nature ofthe doped nitrogen. It is demonstrated that the chemical nature and the amount of nitrogen actually control theORR activity. The N-rGO which contains a large amount of pyridinic nitrogen with N/C ratio of 0.074 has highcatalytic activity. The carbon bonded to pyridinic nitrogen could be a possible catalytic site in ORR. Our studiessuggest that the graphitic nitrogen does not significantly influence the electrocatalytic activity of N-rGO.

【 授权许可】

Unknown