Ultrafast-Versatile-Domestic-Microwave-Oven Based Graphene Oxide Reactor for the Synthesis of Highly Efficient Graphene Based Hybrid Electrocatalysts

When solid graphene oxide (GO) is treated with microwave, it generates a huge amount of heat followed by reduction and exfoliation. This can be used as a high temperature reactor for ultrafast and in situ synthesis of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) based hybrids within 60 s in an open atmosphere. rGO based hybrids such as Fe3C-G@rGO, Co-Fe3C-G@rGO, Fe-Fe3C-NG@rGO, CoO@rGO, and Pt@rGO (G represents graphene, and NG represents N-doped graphene) have been synthesized by simply mixing appropriate precursors with GO and treating with microwave. The experiments require neither any external high temperature reactors/furnaces nor any chemical reagents or solvents. Then, rGO based hybrids have been exploited for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and methanol oxidation activity. CoO@rGO and Co-Fe3C-G@rGO show outstanding OER performances with very low overpotential (η) and a current density of 10 mA/cm2 at 1.52 and 1.56 V with long-term stability. Fe-Fe3C-NG@rGO hybrid shows better oxy...