Electrocatalytic Reduction of Oxygen on Graphene Nanosheets-Silver Nanoparticles Composite Electrode

In this work, graphene nanosheets-silver nanoparticles (GNSs-AgNPs) hybrid was used for the fabrication of a nanocomposite electrode and its electrocatalytic effect was investigated towards oxygen reduction. GNSs-AgNPs hybrid was synthesized by a facile one-step thermal-assisted method. The morphology and structure of the synthesized hybrid was characterized by field-emission scanning electron (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). AgNps are spherical in shape and their obtained average diameter is 40 nm. Also, the crystalline structure of AgNPs on GNSs was identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. This is an efficient method for high yield production of GNSs-AgNPs hybrid that can be used for design and fabrication of nanocomposite electrodes. For investigation of the electrocatalytic effects of GNSs-AgNPs hybrid, linear sweep voltammogram of GNSs-AgNPs composite electrode was recorded in O2-saturated 0.5 M H2SO4. The strong catalytic activity of the AgNPs supported on GNSs results in greater reduction peak current of O2 and higher sensitivity at a relatively low overpotential

Keywords:

component , electrocatalytic reduction , graphene nanosheet , nanocomposite electrode , oxygen reduction , silver nanoparticle