Moderating Black Powder Chemistry for the Synthesis of Doped and Highly Porous Graphene Nanoplatelets and Their Use in Electrocatalysis

Inspired by black powder explosion, a mixture of sugar and nitrate is diluted with inert molten salt, such that their rapid reaction is moderated, allowing capturing of the intermediacy product: highly porous N-doped graphene nanoplates. The methodology is extended to S-doped porous carbon sheets by replacing the nitrate with sulfate. These MS-derived carbons show promising performances towards electrocatalysis and capacitive energy storage.