Publication

All-in-one Microfluidic Platform Laboratory

Journal

Detailed Characterization of an Annealed Reduced Graphene Oxide Catalyst for Selective Peroxide Formation Activity
Author
Tae Hoon Lee
Co-author
Sojung Park, Tae Hwan Choi, Liang Zhang, Juyoung Kim, Jinghua Guo, Ho Bum Park, Wooyul Kim*, Hyo Won Kim*
Journal
ACS applied materials & interfaces
Vol
12
Page
46439-46445
Year
2020
Recently, electrochemical hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) generation from oxygen molecules has been extensively studied. Thus far, the best peroxide activity under alkaline conditions has been reported at the surface of a mild reduced graphene oxide annealed at 600 °C (mrGO-600). However, the detailed material information, such as chemical functionality and structural morphology, is unknown, which results in ambiguous debates on its catalytic active sites. To solve this problem, we intensively characterize the structure of mrGO-600 to clarify the origin of its catalytic activity. Various characterizations, including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, near-edge X-ray absorption fine spectroscopy, and high-resolution transmittance electron microscopy coupled with in situ infrared spectroelecrochemistry, reveal that the annealing process generates not only various hole edge defects that are related to the ring ether group but also numerous point defects that result in a small-sized disconnected graphitic carbon region. These defects are believed to form a unique atomic level configuration in mrGO-600, which enables it to facilitate high peroxide-generated activity from oxygen molecules in an alkaline electrolyte.