1 research outputs found
Electrochemical preparation of nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots and their size-dependent electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction
Here we report a remarkable transformation of nitrogen-doped multiwalled carbon nanotubes
(MWCNTs) to size selective nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) by a two-step electrochemical method. The
sizes of the N-GQDs strongly depend on the applied anodic potential, moreover increasing potential resulted in a
smaller size of N-GQDs. These N-GQDs display many unusual size-dependant optoelectronic (blue emission) and
electrocatalytic (oxygen reduction) properties. The presence of N dopants in the carbon framework not only causes
faster unzipping of MWCNTs but also provides more low activation energy site for enhancing the electrocatalytic
activity for technologically daunting reactions like oxygen reduction. The smaller size of N-GQDs has shown better
performance as compared to the large N-GQDs. Interestingly, N-GQDs-3 (size = 2.5 ± 0.3 nm, onset potential
= 0.75 V) show a 30-mV higher positive onset potential shift compared to that of N-GQDs-2 (size = 4.7 ± 0.3 nm,
onset potential = 0.72 V) and 70 mV than that of N-GQDs-1 (size = 7.2 ± 0.3, onset potential = 0.68 V) for oxygen
reduction reaction (ORR) in a liquid phase. These result in the size-dependent electrocatalytic activity of N-GQDs for
ORR as illustrated by the smaller sized N-GQDs (2.5 ± 0.3 nm) undoubtedly promising metal-free electrocatalysts
for fuel cell application