ABSTRACT
Graphene has shown promising applications as ultrasensitive gas sensors, transparent electrodes in liquid crystal display devices, large capacity electrodes in batteries, etc. External electric elds, which are often met in practical applications, could induce changes of graphene-based materials in geometry, binding energies, vibrational spectra, chemical activities, and electronic properties, thus further widening their application elds. In this chapter, the dissociative adsorption of H2 and H2O molecules on graphene and N2O decomposition on Mn-embedded graphene in the presence of electric elds based on density functional calculations are reviewed. It is shown that electric elds could act as catalysts to facilitate these chemical reactions, which can widen the applications of graphene as an atomic hydrogen storage material, for reversible tuning of graphene’s wettability between hydrophobic and hydrophilic, and reducing the pollution of N2O.
