Highly Water Dispersible Functionalized Graphene by Thermal Thiol-Ene Click Chemistry
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School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
2
ARC Hub for Graphene Enabled Industry Transformation, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Federico Cesano and Domenica Scarano
Materials 2021, 14(11), 2830; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14112830
Received: 22 April 2021
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Revised: 20 May 2021
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Accepted: 24 May 2021
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Published: 25 May 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Graphene and Other 2D Layered Nanomaterials and Hybrid Structures: Synthesis, Properties and Applications)
Functionalization of pristine graphene to achieve high water dispersibility remains as a key obstacle owing to the high hydrophobicity and absence of reactive functional groups on the graphene surface. Herein, a green and simple modification approach to prepare highly dispersible functionalized graphene via thermal thiol-ene click reaction was successfully demonstrated on pristine graphene. Specific chemical functionalities (–COO, –NH2 and –S) on the thiol precursor (L-cysteine ethyl ester) were clicked directly on the sp2 carbon of graphene framework with grafting density of 1 unit L-cysteine per 113 carbon atoms on graphene. This functionalized graphene was confirmed with high atomic content of S (4.79 at % S) as well as the presence of C–S–C and N–H species on the L-cysteine functionalized graphene (FG-CYS). Raman spectroscopy evidently corroborated the modification of graphene to FG-CYS with an increased intensity ratio of D and G band, ID/IG ratio (0.3 to 0.7), full-width at half-maximum of G band, FWHM [G] (20.3 to 35.5) and FWHM [2D] (64.8 to 90.1). The use of ethanol as the reaction solvent instead of common organic solvents minimizes the chemical hazards exposure to humans and the environment. This direct attachment of multifunctional groups on the surface of pristine graphene is highly demanded for graphene ink formulations, coatings, adsorbents, sensors and supercapacitor applications.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Farivar, F.; Lay Yap, P.; Tung, T.T.; Losic, D. Highly Water Dispersible Functionalized Graphene by Thermal Thiol-Ene Click Chemistry. Materials 2021, 14, 2830. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14112830
AMA Style
Farivar F, Lay Yap P, Tung TT, Losic D. Highly Water Dispersible Functionalized Graphene by Thermal Thiol-Ene Click Chemistry. Materials. 2021; 14(11):2830. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14112830
Chicago/Turabian StyleFarivar, Farzaneh, Pei Lay Yap, Tran T. Tung, and Dusan Losic. 2021. "Highly Water Dispersible Functionalized Graphene by Thermal Thiol-Ene Click Chemistry" Materials 14, no. 11: 2830. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14112830
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