skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Introduction of nitrogen with controllable configuration into graphene via vacancies and edges

Journal Article · · Journal of Materials Chemistry. A
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ta13610h· OSTI ID:1564996
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  2. Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; National Technical Univ. of Athens, Athens (Greece). Dept. of Physics
  3. Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, and Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Doping with nitrogen in controllable configurations is very valuable to tailor the properties of graphene. Here we report density-functional theory calculations of chemical reactions of ammonia, a widely used nitrogen source, at vacancies and edges of graphene, through which we explore strategies to achieve N-doped graphene with optimized properties. Here, we show that at different defects, ammonia reacts to form nitrogen impurities in distinct configurations, i.e. graphitic-N at single vacancies, pyridinic- or pyrrolic-N at divacancies, pyrrolic-N at armchair edges, and N in a four-member ring at zigzag edges. Moreover, different nitrogen-related defect configurations introduce distinct changes in the electronic structure of graphene. By calculating the core level shift of C1s electrons, we find configuration-dependent redistribution of electrons around the N-dopant. A discussion of how to achieve optimized doping and enhanced chemical reactivity in experiments is included.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI ID:
1564996
Journal Information:
Journal of Materials Chemistry. A, Vol. 1, Issue 47; ISSN 2050-7488
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 36 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (79)

Nitrogen-Doped Ordered Mesoporous Graphitic Arrays with High Electrocatalytic Activity for Oxygen Reduction journal March 2010
Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
Catalyst-Free Synthesis of Nitrogen-Doped Graphene via Thermal Annealing Graphite Oxide with Melamine and Its Excellent Electrocatalysis journal May 2011
Nitrogen-Doped Graphene: Efficient Growth, Structure, and Electronic Properties journal December 2011
Theory of nitrogen doping of carbon nanoribbons: Edge effects journal January 2012
Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotube Arrays with High Electrocatalytic Activity for Oxygen Reduction journal February 2009
Controlled Formation of Sharp Zigzag and Armchair Edges in Graphitic Nanoribbons journal March 2009
Connecting Dopant Bond Type with Electronic Structure in N-Doped Graphene journal July 2012
Electronic and optical properties of nitrogen-doped multiwalled carbon nanotubes journal January 2006
Identification of the nitrogen species on N-doped graphene layers and Pt/NG composite catalyst for direct methanol fuel cell journal January 2010
Magnetic moment of a single vacancy in graphene and semiconducting nanoribbons journal October 2012
Biological and chemical sensors based on graphene materials journal January 2012
Visualizing Individual Nitrogen Dopants in Monolayer Graphene journal August 2011
From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method journal January 1999
Pyridinic N doped graphene: synthesis, electronic structure, and electrocatalytic property journal January 2011
Toward N-Doped Graphene via Solvothermal Synthesis journal March 2011
Simultaneous Nitrogen Doping and Reduction of Graphene Oxide journal November 2009
First principle calculations of the electronic properties of nitrogen-doped carbon nanoribbons with zigzag edges journal March 2008
Nitrogen-doped graphene: beyond single substitution and enhanced molecular sensing journal August 2012
Structural, magnetic, and transport properties of substitutionally doped graphene nanoribbons from first principles journal April 2011
Graphene: Electronic and Photonic Properties and Devices journal November 2010
A climbing image nudged elastic band method for finding saddle points and minimum energy paths journal December 2000
Atomistic simulations of the implantation of low-energy boron and nitrogen ions into graphene journal March 2011
Two-Step Boron and Nitrogen Doping in Graphene for Enhanced Synergistic Catalysis journal January 2013
Edge-functionalized and substitutionally doped graphene nanoribbons: Electronic and spin properties journal April 2008
Nitrogen-Doped Colloidal Graphene Quantum Dots and Their Size-Dependent Electrocatalytic Activity for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction journal November 2012
Molecular doping of graphene with ammonium groups journal April 2012
Controllable N-Doping of Graphene journal December 2010
Controllable graphene N-doping with ammonia plasma journal March 2010
From Point Defects in Graphene to Two-Dimensional Amorphous Carbon journal March 2011
Atomic Covalent Functionalization of Graphene journal September 2012
Nitrogen-Doped Graphene and Its Application in Electrochemical Biosensing journal March 2010
Structural Defects in Graphene journal November 2010
Experimental analysis of charge redistribution due to chemical bonding by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy journal January 2011
Review on Recent Progress in Nitrogen-Doped Graphene: Synthesis, Characterization, and Its Potential Applications journal April 2012
Functionalization of Graphene: Covalent and Non-Covalent Approaches, Derivatives and Applications journal September 2012
Ion Implantation of Graphene—Toward IC Compatible Technologies journal September 2013
B, N- and P, N-doped graphene as highly active catalysts for oxygen reduction reactions in acidic media journal January 2013
Extraordinary supercapacitor performance of heavily nitrogenated graphene oxide obtained by microwave synthesis journal January 2013
Electronic and structural characterization of divacancies in irradiated graphene journal March 2012
Nitrogen-Doped Graphene as Efficient Metal-Free Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction in Fuel Cells journal February 2010
High-performance electrochemical pseudo-capacitor based on MnO2 nanowires/Ni foam as electrode with a novel Li-ion quasi-ionic liquid as electrolyte journal January 2011
Electronic and Transport Properties of Unbalanced Sublattice N-Doping in Graphene journal March 2013
Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set journal October 1996
Co3O4 nanocrystals on graphene as a synergistic catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction journal August 2011
Nitrogen-Doped Graphene for High-Performance Ultracapacitors and the Importance of Nitrogen-Doped Sites at Basal Planes journal June 2011
Synthesis of N-Doped Graphene by Chemical Vapor Deposition and Its Electrical Properties journal May 2009
Core-level shifts in complex metallic systems from first principle journal September 2006
Mechanisms of Oxygen Reduction Reaction on Nitrogen-Doped Graphene for Fuel Cells journal May 2011
Doped Graphene Sheets As Anode Materials with Superhigh Rate and Large Capacity for Lithium Ion Batteries journal June 2011
Workfunction-Tunable, N-Doped Reduced Graphene Transparent Electrodes for High-Performance Polymer Light-Emitting Diodes journal December 2011
Anomalous Doping Effects on Charge Transport in Graphene Nanoribbons journal March 2009
Missing Atom as a Source of Carbon Magnetism journal March 2010
Pyrrolic-structure enriched nitrogen doped graphene for highly efficient next generation supercapacitors journal January 2013
Ion and electron irradiation-induced effects in nanostructured materials journal April 2010
A roadmap for graphene journal October 2012
Graphene-Based Materials for Energy Conversion journal May 2012
Soft self-consistent pseudopotentials in a generalized eigenvalue formalism journal April 1990
Carbon Monoxide-Tolerant Platinum Nanoparticle Catalysts on Defect-Engineered Graphene journal January 2011
The edges of graphene journal January 2013
Atomistic Description of Electron Beam Damage in Nitrogen-Doped Graphene and Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes journal September 2012
Nitrogen-doped graphene and its electrochemical applications journal January 2010
Graphene at the Edge: Stability and Dynamics journal March 2009
Critical analysis of vacancy-induced magnetism in monolayer and bilayer graphene journal June 2012
Embedding Transition-Metal Atoms in Graphene: Structure, Bonding, and Magnetism journal March 2009
Defects and doping and their role in functionalizing graphene journal November 2012
X-ray absorption analysis of nitrogen contribution to oxygen reduction reaction in carbon alloy cathode catalysts for polymer electrolyte fuel cells journal February 2009
N-Doping of Graphene Through Electrothermal Reactions with Ammonia journal May 2009
Graphene Photonics, Plasmonics, and Broadband Optoelectronic Devices journal May 2012
Large scale synthesis of N-doped multi-layered graphene sheets by simple arc-discharge method journal January 2010
Controllable healing of defects and nitrogen doping of graphene by CO and NO molecules journal June 2011
Charge Transport in Chemically Doped 2D Graphene journal July 2008
Nitrogen-Doped Ordered Mesoporous Graphitic Arrays with High Electrocatalytic Activity for Oxygen Reduction journal March 2010
Two-Step Boron and Nitrogen Doping in Graphene for Enhanced Synergistic Catalysis journal January 2013
Reducing Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and field-free spin-orbit torque switching in synthetic antiferromagnets journal May 2021
Pyrrolic-Structure Enriched Nitrogen Doped Graphene for Highly Efficient Next Generation Supercapacitors journal March 2013
Anomalous Doping Effects on Charge Transport in Graphene Nanoribbons text January 2009
Visualizing Individual Nitrogen Dopants in Monolayer Graphene text January 2011
A critical analysis of vacancy-induced magnetism in mono and bilayer graphene text January 2012

Cited By (10)

Microwave Energy Drives “On–Off–On” Spin‐Switch Behavior in Nitrogen‐Doped Graphene journal July 2019
A facile approach for constructing nitrogen-doped carbon layers over carbon nanotube surface for oxygen reduction reaction journal July 2018
Unraveling the formation mechanism of graphitic nitrogen-doping in thermally treated graphene with ammonia journal March 2016
An introduction to the chemistry of graphene journal January 2015
Spontaneous linker-free binding of polyoxometalates on nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes for efficient water oxidation journal January 2017
Charge storage at the nanoscale: understanding the trends from the molecular scale perspective journal January 2017
Electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction efficiently boosted by thermal-driving core–shell structure formation in nanostructured FeNi/S, N-doped carbon hybrid catalyst journal January 2018
Substitutional doping of graphene: The role of carbon divacancies journal January 2014
Rational Surface Modification of Two-Dimensional Layered Black Phosphorus: Insights from First-Principles Calculations journal February 2018
Electronic Structure of Nitrogen- and Phosphorus-Doped Graphenes Grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition Method journal March 2020