@article {44172,
	title = {Nitrogen-doped graphene with a three-dimensional architecture assisted by carbon nitride tetrapods as an efficient metal-free electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution},
	journal = {Chemelectrochem},
	volume = {4},
	year = {2017},
	month = {OCT},
	pages = {2643-2652},
	type = {Article},
	abstract = {Current polymer membrane-based electrolyzers use Pt as a cathode catalyst for efficient reduction of water. The high cost of Pt-based catalysts forces researchers to develop alternative electrocatalysts. Here, a simple strategy has been proposed to synthesize a metal-free electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by high-temperature annealing of graphene oxide-coated melamine foam. The prepared catalyst possesses both structural and functional advantages with its three-dimensional (3D) interconnected arms of carbon nitride (CNx) backbone wrapped with nitrogen-doped graphene (N-RGO) sheets (CNx@N-RGO). CNx@N-RGO faces only a 193 mV overpotential to achieve a current density of 10mAcm(-2), which is far superior to the previously reported Pt-free systems. Along with the high exchange current density 34.7 x 10(-6)A cm(-2) and low Tafel slope of 54 mV dec(-1), CNx@N-RGO follows a Volmer-Heyrovsky mechanism for the HER. DFT calculations show that the synergy between CNx and N-RGO facilitates good electrical coupling between the two moieties and provides optimal binding to H+ ions on the catalyst that, in turn, results in efficient reduction of hydrogen ions.},
	keywords = {carbon nitride, Density functional theory, electrocatalyst, hydrogen evolution reaction, nitrogen doped graphene},
	issn = {2196-0216},
	doi = {10.1002/celc.201700479},
	author = {Gangadharan, Pranav K. and Unni, SreeKuttan M. and Kumar, Nandha and Ghosh, Prasenjit and Kurungot, Sreekumar}
}
