Abstract:
The greatest challenge in graphene-based material synthesis is achieving large surface
area of high conductivity. Thus, tuning physico-electrochemical properties of these materials is of
paramount importance. An even greater problem is to obtain a desired dopant configuration which
allows control over device sensitivity and enhanced reproducibility. In this work, substitutional
doping of graphene oxide (GO) with nitrogen atoms to induce lattice–structural modification of GO
resulted in nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (N-rGO). The effect of doping temperatures and
various nitrogen precursors on the physicochemical, optical, and conductivity properties of N-rGO is
hereby reported. This was achieved by thermal treating GO with different nitrogen precursors at
various doping temperatures. The lowest doping temperature (600 ◦C) resulted in less thermally
stable N-rGO, yet with higher porosity, while the highest doping temperature (800 ◦C) produced the
opposite results. The choice of nitrogen precursors had a significant impact on the atomic percentage
of nitrogen in N-rGO. Nitrogen-rich precursor, 4-nitro-o-phenylenediamine, provided N-rGO with
favorable physicochemical properties (larger surface area of 154.02 m2 g
−1
) with an enhanced
electrical conductivity (0.133 S cm−1
) property, making it more useful in energy storage devices. Thus,
by adjusting the doping temperatures and nitrogen precursors, one can tailor various properties
of N-rGO.
