• Dadkhah AA, Faradonbeh MR, Rashidi A, Tasharofi S, Mansourkhani F, One Step Synthesis of Nitrogen-Doped Graphene from Naphthalene and Urea by Atmospheric Chemical Vapor Deposition, J Inorg Organomet Polym (2018) 28: 1609

DOI:  10.1007/s10904-018-0853-4

Abstract:

Heavy metal pollutants in wastewater are a major environmental concern. In order to fabricate metal organic composite for adsorption of these pollutants, in a first step a pristine and several nitrogen doped graphene films were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition method. Preparation of graphene films was performed through a one-step co-growth of naphthalene and urea mixture as an inexpensive and easy technique to handle solid precursors. This was done over a copper catalyst at different growth temperatures. Different characterization methods including Raman spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and X-ray diffraction confirmed the quality of the pristine and doped graphene. This technique showed an increasing trend of the doping level (nitrogen concentration up to 5.1% overall) as the growth temperature decreased. Results showed that both nitrogen doping, and carrying the synthesis at higher temperatures increase the defects and wrinkles in the graphene. Furthermore, doping introduced a light shift in defect types from vacancy in pristine graphene to boundary type in nitrogen-doped samples, which are favorable for functionalization for environmental applications.