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Electrochemical characterization of 3D N-rGO with cobalt phthalocyanine as redox mediator toward oxygen reduction reaction

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Abstract

In this paper, we present a study on the synthesis and electrochemical characterization of nitrogen-doped reduced graphene aerogel (NrGA) prepared through the hydrothermal reduction of graphene oxide (GO) suspension with urea as a nitrogen dopant source. Five samples (rGA, NrGA08, NrGA16, NrGA32, NrGA48) with varying concentrations of urea were prepared to investigate the effect of urea concentration on electrochemical performance. All samples were characterized using XRD, FT-IR, Raman, BET, FESEM, and XPS. The specific surface area of the samples ranged from 110 to 344 m2/g, with the highest value observed for NrGA48. Raman spectroscopy showed the generation of disorder in the structure with the insertion of nitrogen atoms. The electrochemical performance of the sample has been investigated through linear sweep voltammetry, cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, and RDE. The NrGA32 sample exhibited superior electrochemical performance compared to the other samples, and was therefore chosen as the optimized N-doped sample to investigate the effect of cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPC) as a redox mediator. The addition of CoPC significantly improved the electrochemical properties of NrGA32, increasing the electron transfer number from 3.5 to 3.85, enhancing the oxygen reduction current, and shifting the onset potential from 0.480 to 0.700 V vs. SHE.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sharif University of Technology , Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

    Sina Ahadi, Younes Ghorbani & Abolghasem Dolati

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  1. Sina Ahadi
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  2. Younes Ghorbani
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  3. Abolghasem Dolati
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SA, and YG were the main authors of the manuscript and creators of the figures. All experiments were done by SA, and YG. The research conducted under supervision of  AD.

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Correspondence to Sina Ahadi.

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Ahadi, S., Ghorbani, Y. & Dolati, A. Electrochemical characterization of 3D N-rGO with cobalt phthalocyanine as redox mediator toward oxygen reduction reaction. J Appl Electrochem 53, 2197–2212 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-023-01918-8

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