Highly Conductive Nitrogen-Doped Vertically Oriented Graphene toward Versatile Electrode-Related Applications

The direct growth of vertically oriented graphene (VG) on low-priced, easily accessible soda-lime glass can propel its applications in transparent electrodes and energy-relevant areas. However, graphene deposited at low temperature (similar to 600 degrees C) on the catalysis-free insulating substrates usually presents high defect density, poor crystalline quality, and unsatisfactory electrical conductivity. To tackle this issue, we select high borosilicate glass as the growth substrate (softening point similar to 850 degrees C), which can resist higher growth temperature and thus afford higher graphene crystalline quality, by using a radio-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (rf-PECVD) route. A nitrogen doping strategy is also combined to tailor the carrier concentration through a methane/acetonitrile-precursor-based synthetic strategy. The sheet resistance of as-grown nitrogen-doped (N-doped) VG films on high borosilicate glass can thus be lowered down to similar to 2.3 k Omega.sq(-1) at a transmittance of 88%, less than half of the methane-precursor-based PECVD product. Significantly, this synthetic route allows the achievement of 30-inch-scale uniform N-doped graphene glass, thus promoting its applications as excellent electrodes in high-performance switchable windows. Additionally, such N-doped VG films were also employed as efficient electrocatalysts for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction.