Synthesis of nitrogen doped graphite oxide and its electrochemical properties

•Introduction of thermal synthesis of N-doped graphite oxide (GO) with melamine.•Different electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction in acid and alkaline electrolytes.•Higher capacitance of the N-doped GO in organic electrolyte.

We herein report a synthesis nitrogen-doped graphite oxide (N-doped GO) by heat treatment with melamine. The N-doped GO contains 4 at % of nitrogen, incurring the oxygen reduction reaction by nitrogen functional groups. Two kinds of aqueous electrolytes are used for finding the electrocatalytic activities, resulting in symmetric oxygen reduction reaction peaks at −0.8 and 0 V in 6 M KOH and 1 M H2SO4 electrolytes, respectively. The N-doped GO is more activated in the acid electrolyte compared to thermally reduced graphite oxide (TrGO). Specific volumetric capacitance of N-doped GO in 1.8 M tetraethylmethylammonium tetrafluoroborate electrolyte is 57.4 F cc−1 which is higher than 30.5 F cc−1 of the TrGO, demonstrating positive effects of the nitrogen doping in the organic electrolytes for the energy storage devices.