Substrate engineering of graphene reactivity: towards high-performance graphene-based catalystsSubstrate engineering of graphene reactivity: towards high-performance graphene-based catalysts, Published online: 17 January 2018; doi:10.1038/s41699-017-0046-yEngineering the underlying substrate with defects promotes reactivity and catalytic activity of graphene. A team led by Chun Zhang at the Centre for Advanced 2D Materials of the National University of Singapore performed first-principles calculations revealing that, when defects are introduced in the lattice of a Ru(0001) substrate, the reactivity of the supported graphene is enhanced. As a consequence, O2 molecules can be readily adsorbed onto graphene at the location corresponding to the underlying defect. Such facilitated chemical adsorption can be explained in the light of impurity-induced charge transfer from the graphene/Ru(0001) interface to the O2 molecule orbitals. Furthermore, the charge transfer results in high catalytic activity in graphene towards CO oxidation. These results may promote the design of high-performance graphene catalysts supported on a defect-engineered substrate.
Published in: "NPJ 2D Materials and Applications".