A Review of Strategies for the Synthesis of N-Doped Graphene-Like Materials

Methods for synthesizing nitrogen-doped graphene-like materials have attracted significant attention among the scientific community because of the possible applications of such materials in electrochemical devices such as fuel cells, supercapacitors and batteries, as well as nanoelectronics and sensors. The aim of this paper is to review recent advances in this scientific niche. The most common synthesis technique is nitridization of as-deposited graphene or graphene-containing carbon mesh using a non-equilibrium gaseous plasma containing nitrogen or ammonia. A variety of chemical bonds have been observed, however, it is still a challenge how to ensure preferential formation of graphitic nitrogen, which is supposed to be the most favorable. The nitrogen concentration depends on the processing conditions and is typically few at.%; however, values below 1 and up to 20 at.% have been reported. Often, huge amounts of oxygen are found as well, however, its synergistic influence on N-doped graphene is not reported. The typical plasma treatment time is several minutes. The results reported by different authors are discussed, and future needs in this scientific field are summarized. Some aspects of the characterization of graphene samples with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy are presented as well.