Preparation of a ruthenium complex covalently bonded to multilayer graphene and its evaluation as a photocatalyst.

Multilayer graphene (MLG), obtained by mild sonication of graphite in NMP, was functionalised 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with azomethine ylides generated by thermal 1,2-prototropy from various imino esters. The microwave-assisted functionalisation took place in five hours at 100 °C. The resulting MLG, containing substituted proline-based amine functional groups, was characterized using XPS and showed a nitrogen loading three times that obtained for the same transformation performed for five days using convection-assisted heating.