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Theoretical Studies of Oxygen Reactivity of Free-Standing and Supported Boron-Doped Graphene
Cristiana Di Valentin1, Lara Ferrighi2, Gianluca Fazio2
1Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università di Milano-Bicocca, via Cozzi 55, 20125, Milano, Italy. cristiana.divalentin@mater.unimib.it.
Abstract:
Graphene inertness towards chemical reactivity can be considered as an accepted postulate by the research community. This limit has been recently overcome by chemically and physically modifying graphene through non-metal doping or interfacing with acceptor/donor materials (metals or semiconductors). As a result, outstanding performances as catalytic, electrocatalytic, and photocatalytic material have been observed. In this critical Review we report computational work performed, by our group, on the reactivity of free-standing, metal- and semiconductor-supported B-doped graphene towards oxygen, which is at the basis of extremely important energy-related chemical processes, such as the oxygen reduction reaction. It appears that a combination of doping and interfacing approaches for the activation of graphene can open unconventional and unprecedented reaction paths, thus boosting the potential of modified graphene in many chemical applications.
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