Reduced Graphene Oxide Aerogel inside Melamine Sponge as an Electrocatalyst for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Roman A Manzhos,Sergey A Baskakov,Vitaly I Korepanov,Nadezhda N Dremova,Yury M Shulga,Evgeny N Kabachkov,Gennady L Gutsev,Alexander G Krivenko,Yulia V Baskakova

doi:10.3390/ma14020322

Abstract

A graphene oxide aerogel (GOA) was formed inside a melamine sponge (MS) framework. After reduction with hydrazine at 60 °C, the electrical conductive nitrogen-enriched rGOA-MS composite material with a specific density of 20.1 mg/cm3 was used to fabricate an electrode, which proved to be a promising electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction. The rGOA-MS composite material was characterized by elemental analysis, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. It was found that nitrogen in the material is presented by different types with the maximum concentration of pyrrole-like nitrogen. By using Raman scattering it was established that the rGOA component of the material is graphene-like carbon with an average size of the sp2-domains of 5.7 nm. This explains a quite high conductivity of the composite obtained.

Highlights

Aerogels of graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide, and composites on their base are being actively studied [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]
A significant part of the work on obtaining hydrophobic composites based on reduced graphene oxide and melamine sponge was aimed at separating water/oil mixtures
To the best of our knowledge, there is no work in the literature where a graphene oxide aerogel was grown in the pores of a melamine sponge, and the GOA-MS composite reduced in hydrazine vapors was used as an electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction

Summary

Introduction

Aerogels of graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (rGO), and composites on their base are being actively studied [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. 1. Introduction Aerogels of graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (rGO), and composites on their base are being actively studied [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. From the point of view of practical applications, graphene-like materials have attracted great interest as catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cell cathodes [27,28,29,30].

Results

Conclusion