Pyridinic and graphitic nitrogen-rich graphene for high-performance supercapacitors and metal-free bifunctional electrocatalysts for ORR and OER

By S. Faisal, E. Haque, Nikan Noorbehesht, Weimin Zhang, A. Harris, T. L. Church, A. Minett. 2017

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A facile synthesis method to produce nitrogen-doped graphene containing a high atomic percentage of pyridinic N and graphitic N via the thermal annealing of graphene oxide and uric acid is reported. The method yielded N-doped graphene nanosheets that had high surface areas and that contained 9.22 at% nitrogen, which was present in four bonding configurations with a high ratio of pyridinic N and graphitic N. The synthesized N-doped graphene showed excellent capacitance properties, which led to the fabrication of a stacked electrode supercapacitor cell of 2-electrode configuration with a specific capacitance of 230 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1 and with a remarkably high energy density of 62.6 W h kg−1 in aqueous electrolyte. Additionally, this material showed superior properties as an electrocatalyst for both the oxygen-reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), producing high current density primarily via the four-electron pathway for ORR at a current density of −4.3 mA cm−2 and OER activity of a generating current density of 10 mA cm−2 at 1.74 V vs. RHE in alkaline media. Hence, this dual-natured N-doped graphene could provide a platform for developing nanostructured graphene-based advanced energy storage and conversion devices.

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/409f7a87c1eaa2a079debd1f608ca5a267e73a24