Abstract
Herein, we have demonstrated the assembly of the N-doped defects and disordered structures into the typical sp2 carbon layers by nitrogen doping coupled to KOH etching at room temperature to achieve dual defective graphene-based materials (DDGMs) for excellent electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In our protocol, etching at high concentration KOH solution does result in lots of the disordered structures on the N-doped graphene materials (NGMs). Furthermore, the N-doped defects can be remained to a great extent after etching rather than completely remove them from carbon layers, which for the first time paves a feasible approach to disorder engineering toward NGMs to realize DDGMs. More importantly, such DDGMs exhibit significantly enhanced HER activity over the single defective graphene-based materials, including the N-doped or the etched N-undoped samples. Our data further reveal that the excellent HER activity comes from rich active sites of DDGMs. That is, the N-doped defects and disordered structures on DDGMs, might supply more active sites so as to synergistically enhance HER activity of the graphene-based electrocatalysts. This work opens up a novel approach to improving electrocatalytic activity of such metal-free catalysts, and promises the important applications in fields of electrocatalysis or energy conversion.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 150712 |
Journal | Applied Surface Science |
Volume | 566 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 15 Nov 2021 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Hydrogen evolution reaction
- Metal-free electrocatalyst
- Nitrogen heteroatoms
- The disordered structures
- Wet chemical etching
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Physical Chemistry and characterization(PC2)
Johan Wouters (Manager) & Carmela Aprile (Manager)
Technological Platform Physical Chemistry and characterizationFacility/equipment: Technological Platform