Nitrogen-Doped Reduced Graphene Oxide Prepared by Simultaneous Thermal Reduction and Nitrogen Doping of Graphene Oxide in Air and Its Application as an Electrocatalyst

Graphene is considered to be one of the most interesting materials because of its unique two-dimensional structure and properties. However, commercialization and large-scale production of graphene still face great challenges at the moment. Thermal reduction of graphene oxide (GO) can be an effective method to fabricate graphene in large scale, but the need for inert gas protection and high reaction temperature leads to high cost of production, thus limiting the production capacity of graphene. In this paper, for the first time we report a facile, safe, and scalable method to achieve simultaneous thermal reduction and nitrogen doping of GO in air at much lower reaction temperature while upholding a high-quality end product. The reduction and nitrogen doping of GO are evidenced by ultraviolet visible absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The nitrogen-doped reduced GO (NrGO) fabricated via this method has a high carbon/oxygen ratio of 15 and a nitrogen content of 11.87 atom %. The NrGO is also investigated by applying it as an electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction. As a result, the catalytic activity has presented itself as much higher than that of the undoped rGO.