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Published on: May 17, 2018
Fine-Tuning the Wall Thickness of Ordered Mesoporous Graphene by Exploiting Ligand Exchange of Colloidal Nanocrystals
Dandan Han1, Yancui Yan2, Jishi Wei1
1Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Department of Chemistry, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Abstract:
Because of their unique physical properties, three-dimensional (3D) graphene has attracted enormous attention over the past years. However, it is still a challenge to precisely control the layer thickness of 3D graphene. Here, we report a novel strategy to rationally adjust the wall thickness of ordered mesoporous graphene (OMG). By taking advantage of ligand exchange capability of colloidal Fe3O4 nanocrystals, we are able to fine-tune the wall thickness of OMG from 2 to 6 layers of graphene. When evaluated as electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction upon S and N doping, the 4-layer OMG is found to show better catalytic performance compared with their 2- and 6-layer counterparts, which we attribute to the enhanced exposure of active sites arising from the thin wall thickness and high surface area.
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