The production of oxygenated polycrystalline graphene by one-step ethanol-chemical vapor deposition.

Large-area mono- and bilayer graphene films were synthesized on Cu foil (~ 1 inch(2)) in about 1 min by a simple ethanol-chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. Raman spectroscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy revealed the synthesized graphene films to have polycrystalline structures with 2-5 nm individual crystallite size which is a function of temperature up to 1000°C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy investigations showed about 3 atomic% carboxylic (COOH) functional groups were formed during growth.

Diels-Alder chemistry of graphite and graphene: graphene as diene and dienophile.

The zero-band-gap electronic structure of graphene enables it to function as either the diene or the dienophile in the Diels-Alder reaction, and this versatile synthetic method offers a powerful strategy for the reversible modification of the electronic properties of graphene under very mild conditions.

Electro-oxidized epitaxial graphene channel field-effect transistors with single-walled carbon nanotube thin film gate electrode.

We report the effect of electrochemical oxidation in nitric acid on the electronic properties of epitaxial graphene (EG) grown on silicon carbide substrates; we demonstrate the availability of an additional reaction channel in EG, which is not present in graphite but which facilitates the introduction of the reaction medium into the graphene galleries during electro-oxidation. The device performance of the chemically processed graphene was studied by patterning the EG wafers with two geometrically identical macroscopic channels; the electro-oxidized channel showed a logarithmic increase of resistance with decreasing temperature, which is ascribed to the scattering of charge carriers in a two-dimensional electronic gas, rather than the presence of an energy gap at the Fermi level. Field-effect transistors were fabricated on the electro-oxidized and pristine graphene channels using single-walled carbon nanotube thin film top gate electrodes, thereby allowing the study of the effect of oxidative chemistry on the transistor performance of EG.

Spectroscopy of covalently functionalized graphene.

In order to engineer a band gap into graphene, covalent bond-forming reactions can be used to change the hybridization of the graphitic atoms from sp(2) to sp(3), thereby modifying the conjugation length of the delocalized carbon lattice; similar side-wall chemistry has been shown to introduce a band gap into metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes. Here we demonstrate that the application of such covalent bond-forming chemistry modifies the periodicity of the graphene network thereby introducing a band gap (∼0.4 eV), which is observable in the angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy of aryl-functionalized graphene.

Electrolyte tuning of surfactant interfacial behavior for enhanced density-based separations of single-walled carbon nanotubes.

We study the interfacial behavior between the straight-chain alkyl surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) as a function of added electrolytes, including NaCl. We observe an increase in photoluminescence intensity and narrowing of spectral line widths with electrolyte addition, indicating a change in SDS aggregation number that leads to a pronounced volume change in the nanotube/SDS composite structure. By tuning the interfacial dynamics through NaCl addition and temperature change, we demonstrate that this volume change can be used to yield diameter-dependent separation of metallic and semiconducting SWNTs, without the use of any additional cosurfactant, through density gradient ultracentrifugation.

Solution properties of graphite and graphene.

Covalent derivatization of the acidic functional groups in oxidized graphite with octadecylamine renders graphite soluble in common organic solvents. Atomic force microscopic characterization of the soluble species supports the idea that the solutions consist of single and few layer graphene sheets, and we report the first solution properties of graphite.

Comparison of analytical techniques for purity evaluation of single-walled carbon nanotubes.

We compare popular analytical techniques, including scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Raman and near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, for the evaluation of the purity of bulk quantities of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). Despite their importance as imaging techniques, SEM and TEM are not capable of quantitatively evaluating the purity of typical inhomogeneous bulk SWNT samples because the image frame visualizes less than 1 pg of SWNT material; furthermore, there is no published algorithm to convert such images into numerical data. The TGA technique is capable of measuring the amount of metal catalyst in an SWNT sample, but does not provide an unambiguous separation between the content of SWNTs and carbonaceous impurities.

Large-scale fabrication of aligned single-walled carbon nanotube array and hierarchical single-walled carbon nanotube assembly.

Aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and hierarchical SWNT assembly were fabricated by electrospinning. The high fiber elongation and high DC electric field applied during the electrospinning process result in the orientation of the SWNTs along the axial direction of the fiber. The alignment of the electropsun composite fiber transfers this local SWNT orientation to macroscopically aligned SWNTs.