Journal Article

Elemental superdoping of graphene and carbon nanotubes

Sun, Litao, Tang, Nujiang, Cheng, Hui-Ming, Li, Feng, Ren, Wencai, Chen, Jie, Li, Jincheng, Gao, Libo, Liu, Fuchi, Liu, Yuan, Du, Youwei, Shen, Yuting, Sun, Yuanyuan, Liu, Chang

2016

Overview

Doping of low-dimensional graphitic materials, including graphene, graphene quantum dots and single-wall carbon nanotubes with nitrogen, sulfur or boron can significantly change their properties. We report that simple fluorination followed by annealing in a dopant source can superdope low-dimensional graphitic materials with a high level of N, S or B. The superdoping results in the following doping levels: (i) for graphene, 29.82, 17.55 and 10.79 at% for N-, S- and B-doping, respectively; (ii) for graphene quantum dots, 36.38 at% for N-doping; and (iii) for single-wall carbon nanotubes, 7.79 and 10.66 at% for N- and S-doping, respectively. As an example, the N-superdoping of graphene can greatly increase the capacitive energy storage, increase the efficiency of the oxygen reduction reaction and induce ferromagnetism. Furthermore, by changing the degree of fluorination, the doping level can be tuned over a wide range, which is important for optimizing the performance of doped low-dimensional graphitic materials. Doping of low-dimensional graphitic materials with heteroatoms can enhance their catalytic, electrochemical and magnetic properties. Here, the authors report a tunable method to ‘superdope’ these materials with high levels of nitrogen, sulfur, or boron, via a simple fluorination and annealing procedure.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 639/301/357/918 / 639/925/357/73 / Boron / Carbon / Energy storage / Humanities and Social Sciences / multidisciplinary / Nanotechnology / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Sulfur