Use of Grape Leaves for Producing Graphene for Use As an Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalyst Publisher



Sadegh Hassani S^{1, 2} ; Ganjali MR^{1, 3} ; Samiee L⁴ ; Rashidi AM⁵ Show Affiliations
Source: International Journal of Electrochemical Science Published:2020

Abstract

Recently, the development of highly active electrocatalysts with considerable, efficiency and moderate costs for application in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has attracted a great deal of attention. In this work, an economic and easy approach has been evaluated for preparation of graphene doped with N, S, B and P. The source of graphene used in this study was grape leaves and N, S, P and B were then added thereto through a 2-hour pyrolysis reaction in N2 atmosphere at 900°C. The produced specimens were evaluated using XRD, FTIR, SEM, XPS ad TEM, as well as CV analyses using a rotating disk electrode (RDE). The morphology of doped graphene sample showed uniform dispersion of sulfur, nitrogen, boron and phosphorous in the carbon framework, which was obtained with elemental mapping distribution. The prepared samples show good selectivity to the 4 electron reaction pathway in an alkaline electrolyte as well as stable current density and great resistance against crossover effects of methanol. These indicate the considerable promise of these materials for use in oxygen reduction reaction as an electro-catalyst. Moreover, the onset potential of Gl300G-900 and GlG-900 samples (0.93 and 0.92 V vs. RHE) was found to be near that of Pt/C 20 wt. % (0.99 V vs RHE). © 2020 The Authors.