Role of Pyridinic-N for Nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots in oxygen reaction reduction.

Nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) exhibit exciting properties in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) for ample electrocatalytic edging and N-doped active sites. However, low yield and high dispersity of N-GQDs prohibit their direct application as the electrocatalyst. In this paper, two facile hydrothermal progress were developed to synthesize the high-yield N-GQDs with the diameter of ca. 2-6nm and the hybrid of N-GQDs/Reduced Graphene Oxide (N-GQDs/r-GO). The results demonstrated that the N-GQDs/r-GO display remarkable electrocatalytic activity. Moreover, it can be found that the pyridinic-N plays a major role in ORR. Both the average electron transfer number and the onset potential depend on the content of pyridinic-N. The proposed synthesis strategy is facile and low-cost, serving as a feasible method for the development of highly efficient electrocatalysts.