—Making Graphene More Useful “ACS Meeting News: Textbook reaction offers customized modification of carbon material’s properties” By applying a classic organic chemistry reaction to graphene, researchers at MIT have come up with a customizable route to covalently modify this ultrathin form of carbon.
by Mitch Jacoby | September 05, 2011
—Forcing Patterns Of Organic Molecules On Graphene Surfaces “Materials: Polymer stamps functionalize graphene surfaces by accelerating Diels-Alder reactions between inks and the material” To fabricate electronic devices that take advantage of graphene’s great conductivity and strength, materials scientists first need to chemically modify the material to tweak its other properties.
by Prachi Patel, special to C&EN | June 27, 2013
—Gentle Graphene Oxidation Via Atomic Oxygen “Method activates carbon film chemically without destroying its morphology” Graphene’s exceptional popularity stems from the expectation that the material’s properties will lead to applications in electronics and other areas. But those applications typically require mating graphene chemically with other materials to build functional devices. Unfortunately, graphene’s inertness can thwart efforts to fabricate such devices. Researchers commonly deal with the inertness via harsh acidic oxidation, which endows the material with oxygen-containing functional groups. In subsequent steps, scientists typically reduce oxidized graphene chemically or thermally to restore its native properties.
by Mitch Jacoby | November 18, 2013
First the team analyzed composites consisting of a single layer of graphene deposited on silicon dioxide, a standard support material. Then they etched away the graphene and reanalyzed the remaining samples’ thermal properties. From the difference, the team determined that the thermal conductivity (near room temperature) of supported, single-layer graphene is about 600 W per meter per Kelvin.
by Mitch Jacoby | April 12, 2010
—Fluorinated Graphene “Simple method could electrically isolate regions of the conducting material to make electronic devices” Using a fluoropolymer and a laser beam, researchers have devised a method for fluorinating selected regions of graphene (Nano Lett., DOI: 10.1021/nl300346j). Fluorination breaks up graphene’s conductive electron network, so the new method could isolate conducting regions of graphene—a capability that would be useful for building graphene-based electronic devices, says Rodney S.
by Bethany Halford | April 16, 2012
—Probing Graphene’s Magnetism In Detail “Study reports new method for rendering graphene magnetic, advancing prospects for spintronics” Graphene’s outstanding mechanical, electronic, thermal, and other properties are expected to yield applications in electronics, advanced materials, and other areas. Earlier this year, researchers demonstrated that the material could be rendered magnetic, thereby extending graphene’s potential applications to spintronics. That field aims to make communications, computing, and other devices that merge electron spin, a magnetic property, with properties of conventional electronics. Yet graphene’s magnetism and methods to prepare magnetic graphene remain largely unexplored. Now, a team led by University of California, Berkeley, electrical engineer Jeongmin Hong reports that a simple nitrophenyl functionalization method can be used to prepare large samples of graphene that retain their magnetic nature even at elevated temperatures (ACS Nano 2013, DOI: 10.1021/nn403939r).
by Mitch Jacoby | November 11, 2013
—Graphene Fights Corrosion “Ultrathin carbon layers provide the thinnest possible protection for metals” Graphene, the honeycomb-structured darling of materials, is now the world’s thinnest anticorrosion coating (ACS Nano, DOI: 10.1021/nn203507y). Researchers led by Vanderbilt University’s Kirill I. Bolotin report that with a coating of graphene just a few atoms thick, certain metals possess up to 20 times the corrosion resistance than they would have if they were bare. Graphene’s gossamer thinness makes it superior to polymeric coatings, which are relatively thick and can change the properties of the underlying material. Bolotin’s group studied both single- and multilayer graphene applied via either chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or mechanical transfer techniques to nickel and copper. Although all types of graphene provided some degree of protection, multilayered graphene applied via CVD proved the most powerful at keeping corrosion at bay. When the researchers did find corrosion, it occurred at cracks in the graphene. “We expect that the proposed method of corrosion passivation is quite versatile and is applicable not just to nickel and copper but to arbitrary metallic surfaces that are either smooth or rough,” the researchers note. /articles/90/i7/Graphene-Fights-Corrosion.html 20120213 Ultrathin carbon layers provide the thinnest possible protection for metals Concentrates 90 7 /magazine/90/09007.html Graphene Fights Corrosion graphene, anticorrosion, coating con Science & Technology Bethany Halford materials Graphene Fights Corrosion Chemical & Engineering News Graphene Fights Corrosion Graphene Fights Corrosion
by Bethany Halford | February 13, 2012