Pyrolytic synthesis of nitrogen and silicon doped graphene nanoflakes

Heterosubstitution in graphene materials is a powerful tool for targeted variation of their structural and electronic characteristics. In this work, the template pyrolytic approach combined with the simultaneous doping with nitrogen and silicon atoms was used for the first time to synthesize graphene nanoflakes. It was found that materials co-doped with nitrogen and silicon can be obtained by sequential introduction of silicon and nitrogen, while simultaneous doping resulted in the incorporation of only nitrogen atoms into the structure of the graphene layers, with silicon atoms binding with oxygen. According to transmission electron microscopy, the resulting particles have a different structure depending on the synthesis method.