Nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets as cathode materials with excellent electrocatalytic activity for high capacity lithium-oxygen batteries

Nonaqueous lithium-oxygen battery with nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets (N-GNSs) as cathode materials delivered a discharge capacity of 11660 mAh g− 1, which is about 40% higher than that with the pristine graphene nanosheets (GNSs). The electrocatalytic activity of N-GNSs for oxygen reduction in the nonaqueous electrolyte is 2.5 times as that of GNSs. The excellent electrochemical performance of N-GNSs is attributed to the defects and functional groups as active sites introduced by nitrogen doping.

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► Nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets (N-GNSs) were used in lithium-oxygen batteries.
► N-GNSs electrode exhibits about 40% higher discharge capacity than GNSs electrode.
► N-GNSs also show good catalytic activity for ORR in a nonaqueous electrolyte.
► The performance improvement was due to the defects and functional groups.