Uniform nanoporous graphene sponge from natural polysaccharides as a metal-free electrocatalyst for hydrogen generation

Structuring of graphene as graphene sponges in the submicrometric scale has been achieved by using silica spheres (80 nm diameter) as hard templates and chitosan or alginate as precursor of defective N-doped or undoped graphene, respectively. The resulting defective N-doped graphene sponge exhibits a remarkable activity and stability for hydrogen evolution reaction with onset at 203 mV for a current density of 0.5 mA cm⁻² with a small Tafel plot slope of 69.7 mV dec⁻¹. In addition, the graphene sponge also exhibits a high double layer capacitance of 11.65 mF cm⁻². Comparison with an analogous N-doped graphene sample shows that this electrochemical properties derive from the spatial structuring and large surface area.