(305h) Fast Growth of Single Crystal Graphene and Application of Graphene in Catalytic Reactions

Fast growth, with growth rate of 70 μm/min,of single crystal graphene was demonstrated by preparing graphene in confined space. With this method, we increases the concentration of the reactive radicals that leads to boosted graphene growth rate while not affecting the nucleation density, which consequently allows the graphene growth into sub-centimeter size. Furthermore, we engineered well-distributed dicobalt phosphide (Co₂P) nanoparticles encapsulated in N,P-doped graphene (Co₂P@NPG) as electrochemical catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Our experimental results show significantly enhanced performance for such engineered core-shell nanostructure due to the synergistic effect from nanoparticles encapsulation and nitrogen and phosphors doping on graphene structures. The obtained Co₂P@NPG modified cathode exhibits small overpotentials of only -45 mV at 1mA cm^-2.