Reduction of Graphene Oxide Thin Films by Cobaltocene and Decamethylcobaltocene

MacInnes, Molly M.; Hlynchuk, Sofiya; Acharya, Saurabh; Lehnert, Nicolai; Maldonado, Stephen

doi:10.1021/acsami.7b15599

Title: Reduction of Graphene Oxide Thin Films by Cobaltocene and Decamethylcobaltocene

Journal Article · Thu Dec 14 00:00:00 EST 2017 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.7b15599· OSTI ID:1415332

MacInnes, Molly M.; Hlynchuk, Sofiya; Acharya, Saurabh;

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Reduced graphene oxide (RGO) films have been prepared by immersion of graphene oxide (GO) films at room temperature in nonaqueous solutions containing simple, outer-sphere metallocene reductants. Specifically, solutions of cobaltocene, cobaltocene and trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), and decamethylcobaltocene each showed activity for the rapid reduction of GO films cast on a wide variety of substrates. Each reactant increased the conductivity of the films by several orders of magnitude, with RGO films prepared with either decamethylcobaltocene or cobaltocene and TFA possessing the highest conductivities (~10⁴ S m^–1). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy suggested that while all three reagents lowered the content of carbon–oxygen functionalities, solutions of cobaltocene and TFA were the most effective at reducing the material to sp² carbon. Separately, Raman spectra and atomic force micrographs indicated that RGO films prepared with decamethylcobaltocene consisted of the largest graphitic domains and lowest macroscopic roughness. Cumulatively, the data suggest that the outer-sphere reductants can affect the conversion to RGO but the reactivity and mechanism depend on the standard potential of the reductant and the availability of protons. This work both demonstrates a new way to prepare high-quality RGO films on a wide range of substrate materials without annealing and motivates future work to elucidate the chemistry of RGO synthesis through the tunability of outer-sphere reductants such as metallocenes.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC006628; SC0006628

OSTI ID:: 1415332

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1508282

Journal Information:: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Journal Name: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces Vol. 10 Journal Issue: 2; ISSN 1944-8244

Publisher:: American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 20 works

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