N-doped graphene as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions in an alkaline electrolyte

•A N-doped graphene was prepared by a hydrothermal route and subsequent a freeze-dry.•The catalyst exhibits excellent bifunctional catalytic activities in alkaline electrolyte.•The loose structure of the nitrogen-doped graphene favors ORR and OER.

In this work, a nitrogen-doped graphene (NG) catalyst was prepared using a hydrothermal method with ammonia as the nitrogen precursor, which was followed by a freeze-dry process. The catalyst was characterized using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscope, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The bifunctional catalytic activities for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) were investigated using cyclic voltammetry in an alkaline electrolyte. The results indicate that nitrogen is successfully doped in the NG catalyst, and the catalyst has a loose structure that was produced during the freeze-dry process. The catalyst exhibits an excellent ORR activity with an onset potential of −0.08 V and a high OER activity with an obvious OER current at 0.7 V. The rotating-disk-electrode test results indicate that the ORR process catalyzed by the NG catalyst involves a mix of the two-electron and four-electron transfer pathways. This work preliminarily explores the bifunctional catalytic properties for the ORR and the OER of nitrogen-doped graphene materials in alkaline electrolyte.