Facile Solution Plasma Synthesis of Cationic Nitrogen-Doped Graphene

Abstract

Cationic N-doped graphene (CNG) was synthesized through a new method called Solution Plasma (SP) in a mixture of ionic liquid and organic solution, at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure. The originality of the research consists in two things. First, the process allows one-step, rapid, substrate-free synthesis and simultaneously doping of CNG. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron and Raman spectroscopy confirmed that the graphene synthesis had proceeded, the material contains a high-level of nitrogen (13.4 at%) with the presence of cationic nitrogen, and has a few-layer structure (about 3-layer). Second, CNG behave like p-type semiconductor with a high sheet resistance of 16 Ω sq−1 and a high carrier concentration of 1019 cm−3; indicating that process can significantly control the electrical properties of graphene. The combination of SP and ILs shows a promising strategy for the design and synthesis of NG using cationic N-doping, which cannot be achieved with other methods.AcknowledgementsThis work was financially supported by JST-OPERA (JPMJOP1843), JST-SICORP (JPMJSC18H1) and JSPS-KAKENHI (JP18K18998). Figure 1