Chemical reactivity of C–F bonds attached to graphene with diamines depending on their nature and location

Abstract

The attachment of fluorine to graphene is a facile means to activate the carbon bonds for subsequent covalent bonding to other molecules for the preparation of desired graphene derivatives. Therefore, an insight into the chemical reactivity of fluorinated graphene (FG) is very essential to enable precise control of the composition and structure of the final products. In this study, FG has been treated with various mass amounts of poly(oxypropylene)diamine (PEA) ranging from starvation to saturation to explore the dependence of a substitution reaction of diamines on the nature and location (attached onto the basal planes or along defects or edges) of C–F bonds. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy directly tracked the atomic percentage of fluorine present and the carbon 1s bonding state, showing that the grafting ratio of diamines gradually increases with increased diamine mass ratio. The varying of the types and orientation of C–F bonds characterized by polarized attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicates that “covalent” C–F bonds are more sensitive to the substitution reaction of diamines than ‘‘semi-ionic’’ C–F bonds, and the C–F bonds attached onto basal planes more preferably participate in the functionalization reaction of diamines than that of C–F bonded on non-coplanar regions (edges or defects). The one-dimensional expansion along the graphene c-axis shown by wide angle X-ray diffraction provides further evidence on the preferred functionalization reaction of C–F attached on the basal planes, resulting in a change of the average intersheet distance by various magnitudes.