Sulfur doped graphene as a promising metal-free electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction: a DFT-D study

Abstract

As an efficient metal-free catalyst, graphene doped with heteroatoms is highly active in promoting electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The detailed kinetic and thermodynamic behaviors of the entire ORR process on sulfur doped monovacancy graphene (SGV), as well as the original mechanism are investigated by the dispersion-corrected density function theory (DFT-D) calculations. It is found that the SGV is rather stable and the sulfur dopant is probably the active center. There are two proposed ORR pathways by kinetic process: the dissociation of OOH and the hydrogenation of OOH with the rate-determining steps of 0.75 eV and 0.62 eV, respectively. And the Gibbs free energy diagram of the entire ORR indicates that the dissociation of OOH is precluded, because the process of reduction step of O into OH is endothermic, while the hydrogenation of HOOH is the most favorable pathway even at high potential of 0.86 V. Our DFT-D simulation suggests that the SGV would be an efficient electrocatalyst for ORR.