N-doped crumpled graphene: bottom-up synthesis and its superior oxygen reduction performance - Carbon4Energy

The fabrication of crumpled graphene (CrG) was reported applying defluorination of PVDF on highly curved surface of CaC2 particle through bottom-up synthetic strategy. The limited reaction depth between polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF) and CaC2 lead to the formation of CrG with thin layer (3-6 layer graphene) and reasonable high specific surface area (~324.8 m2 g-1). CrG with N incorporation (N-CrG) was applied as electrode material for reducing oxygen (i.e., oxygen reduction reaction, ORR) in alkaline, showing close onset potential to that of Pt/C and better mass-diffusion behavior. Surprisingly, with increased mass loading of catalysts, N-CrG exhibit steady current increase while Pt/C showed clear current plateau. Meanwhile, high cycling stability and tolerance to contaminant were found for N-CrG sample, demonstrating its high potentials for practical applications. Additionally, the bottom-up synthetic pathway to CrG via polymer dehalogenation on solid alkaline may find more applications which require controlled morphology and thickness of deposited thin graphitic carbon layers.