Understanding room-temperature metastability of graphene oxide utilizing hydramines from a synthetic chemistry view

Abstract

Owing to polydispersity and polyfunctionality, the chemically controlled heterogeneous synthesis of graphene-based compounds is a great challenge for synthetic chemists. Graphene oxide as significant precursor is playing an irreplaceable part in multiple applications. The external temperature stimuli-response process based on the chemistry of graphene oxide is not well understood. An improved fundamental understanding is a crucial prerequisite for their potential application in future. Here, a simple and efficient approach for the synchronized room-temperature surface and edge modification of hydramines (HA) on graphene oxide (GO) is reported. The chemical mechanism investigation of the simultaneous covalent/noncovalent functionalization demonstrates that GO is a metastable material, whose oxygen-containing functional groups could be regarded as active sites and involved in various reactions under such a low temperature. And the size and steric hindrance of substituent of organic molecules play a vital factor to affect the chemical activity. The accurate nanostructures of HA functionalized GO nanomaterials would effectively promote the controlled interfacial engineering of advanced graphene-based nanocomposites.