When applied on the counter electrode of a dye-sensitized solar cell, functionalized graphene sheets with oxygen-containing sites perform comparably to platinum (conversion efficiencies of 5.0 and 5.5%, respectively, at 100 mW cm ؊2 AM1.5G simulated light). To interpret the catalytic activity of functionalized graphene sheets toward the reduction of triiodide, we propose a new electrochemical impedance spectroscopy equivalent circuit that matches the observed spectra features to the appropriate phenomena. Using cyclic voltammetry, we also show that tuning our material by increasing the amount of oxygen-containing functional groups can improve its apparent catalytic activity. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a functionalized graphene sheet based ink can serve as a catalytic, flexible, electrically conductive counter electrode material.

Stainless steels undergo a sharp rise in pitting corrosion rate as the potential, solution concentration, or temperature is changed only slightly. We report experiments using real-time microscopic in situ visualizations that resolve the nucleation and evolution of individual pits during the transition. They suggest that the sudden onset of corrosion is explained by an explosive autocatalytic growth in the number of metastable pits and that stabilization of individual pits takes place only later. This finding agrees with a theoretical approach treating the onset of pitting corrosion as a cooperative critical phenomenon resulting from interactions among metastable pits, and it extends perspectives on the control and prevention of corrosion onset.

We study the effect of carbon to oxygen ratio (C/O) on the electrical resistance of functionalized graphene sheets prepared by thermal exfoliation and reduction of graphite oxide at various temperatures. Using a 2-probe technique in conjunction with Kelvin probe force microscopy, we observe a transition from high-resistance (>400 kΩ/sq) nonlinear current/voltage characteristics at low C/O to low-resistance (<10 kΩ/sq) linear behavior at high C/O, indicating a transition from hopping to diffusive electron transport. Simultaneously, the metal-graphene contacts change from high-resistance Schottky-type behavior to nearly non-invasive metal-metal contact characteristics.

Electrodes used in electroanalysis, which are based on carbonaceous nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes or graphene, often exhibit large degrees of porosity. By systematically varying the morphology of functionalized graphene electrodes from nearly flat to highly porous, we demonstrate experimentally that minute amounts of electrode porosity have surprisingly significant effects on the apparent reaction kinetics as determined by cyclic voltammetry, both in the reversible and the irreversible regime. We quantify electrode porosity using a coulometric approach and, with the help of numerical simulations, determine the correlation between electrode pore volume and apparent electrode kinetics. We show that in the reversible and quasi-reversible regime, the voltamperometric response constitutes a superposition of thin film diffusion-related effects within the porous electrode and of the standard flat electrode response. For irreversible kinetics, however, we show that diffusive coupling between the electrode and the electrolyte can, under suitably chosen conditions, result in effective electrocatalytic behavior. Confirming past theoretical work by Compton and others, our experiments demonstrate that for a comparison of electroanalytical data obtained with different electrode materials it is not sufficient to only consider differences in the materials’ chemical structure but equally important to take into account differences in electrode morphology.