Facile Synthesis of Nitrogen‐Doped Graphene via Pyrolysis of Graphene Oxide and Urea, and its Electrocatalytic Activity toward the Oxygen‐Reduction Reaction

Abstract

Nitrogen‐doped graphene (NG) is a promising metal‐free catalyst for the oxygen‐reduction reaction (ORR). A facile and low‐cost synthesis of NG via the pyrolysis of graphene oxide and urea is reported. The N content in NG can be up to 7.86%, with a high percentage of graphitic N (≈24%), which gives rise to an excellent catalytic activity toward the ORR.

Superhigh capacity and rate capability of high-level nitrogen-doped graphene sheets as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries

“…Moreover, the G band of the nitrogen-doped graphene sheets is down-shifted to 1590 cm −1 compared with the graphene sheets (1591 cm −1 ). The downshift of the G band can be attributed to electron-donating capability of nitrogen heteroatoms [ 16,17,32,33]. As is known, the G band with E 2g symmetry is related to phonon vibrations in sp 2 carbon materials, while the D band with A 1g symmetry is ascribed to disordered carbon, edge defects, and other defects [32,33].…”

“…The two weak peaks located at 285.3 and 286.6 eV represent N C (sp 2 ) and N C (sp 3 ) bonds, respectively [23]. Similarly, the N 1s peak can be divided into three components centered at 398.4, 399.6, and 400.9 eV, representing pyridine, pyrrolic, and graphitic nitrogen atoms in the nitrogen-doped graphene sheets, respectively [16,17,[21][22][23][24]. From Fig.…”

“…In addition, the electronic and chemical properties of graphene can be modified by chemical doping heteroatoms, such as boron atoms and nitrogen atoms [11][12][13][14][15]. Particularly, nitrogen-doped graphene has been extensively applied in various fields, such as electrocatalysis [16,17], supercapacitor [18,19], Li-air fuel cell [20], and lithium-ion batteries [21][22][23][24]. Recently, nitrogen-doped graphene has been widely investigated and delivers better electrochemical performance than the pristine graphene [21][22][23][24].…”

Highly efficient cathode catalyst layer based on nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes for the alkaline direct methanol fuel cell

“…graphene [10,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33], carbon nanotubes [11,20,21,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43], carbon nanofibers [12,[44][45][46][47], mesoporous carbon [15,22], graphitic carbon [48,49], carbon spheres [19,[50][51][52][53], carbon nanocages 4 [54], flower-like carbon [55], carbon aerogel [56,57], vesicular carbon [58], nanodiamonds [59]) relatively few have been tested in actual fuel cell conditions [58,[60][61][62]…”

Highly graphitized nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanopolyhedra derived from ZIF-8 nanocrystals as efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reactions

“…The higher stability of NGPC-1000-10 may be attributed to the nature of its active sites induced by nitrogen doping, because the strength of the covalent C-N bond is well above the adsorption forces exerted between the noble-or non-noble-metal catalysts and their supports. 64 Besides, the metal-free carbon catalyst does not suffer activity degradation caused by metal nanoparticle agglomeration and loss as Pt/C, which may contribute to their high stability. 65 Moreover, the formation of graphitic carbon could also play a signicant role in the improvement of the corrosion resistance for the carbon-based catalyst.…”