Acetone‐Induced Graphene Oxide Film Formation at the Water–Air Interface

Graphene oxide (GO) is an amphiphilic soft material, which can accumulate at the water–air interface. However, GO sheets diffuse slowly in the aqueous phase because of their large size. It is still challenging to form high quality GO films in a controllable and simple way. In this study, we showed that GO sheets can quickly migrate to the water–air interface and form thin films when a suitable amount of acetone is directly mixed with a GO aqueous dispersion. The film formation rate and surface coverage of GO sheets depend on the volume of acetone added, GO dispersion concentration, and formation time. Among several organic solvents, acetone has its advantage for GO film formation owing to its three properties: a nonsolvent to GO aqueous dispersions, miscible with a GO aqueous dispersion, and fast evaporation. Furthermore, we have found that the film formation also is governed by the size of GO sheets and their oxygen content. Although smaller GO sheets could migrate to the water–air interface faster, the overlapping of small GO sheets and the increase in contact resistance is not desirable. A higher oxygen content in GO sheets could also result in smaller GO sheets. Multilayer GO films can be obtained through layer‐by‐layer dip‐coating. These findings open opportunities in developing simple scalable GO film fabrication processes.     

Efficient reduction of graphene oxide catalyzed by copper

We report that copper thin films deposited on top of graphene oxide (GO) serve as an effective catalyst to reduce GO sheets in a diluted hydrogen environment at high temperature. The reduced GO (rGO) sheets exhibit higher effective field-effect hole mobility, up to 80 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1), and lower sheet resistance (13 kΩ □(-1)) compared with those reduced by reported methods such as hydrazine and thermal annealing. Raman and XPS characterizations are addressed to study the reduction mechanism on graphene oxide underneath copper thin films. The level of reduction in rGO sheets is examined by Raman spectroscopy and it is well correlated with hole mobility values. The conductivity enhancement is attributed to the growth of the graphitic domain size. This method is not only suitable for reduction of single GO sheets but also applicable to lower the sheet resistance of Langmuir-Blodgett assembled GO films.     

Formation of homogeneous nanocomposite films at ambient temperature via miniemulsion polymerization using graphene oxide as surfactant

A convenient and industrially scalable method for synthesis of homogeneous nanocomposite films comprising poly(styrene‐stat‐butyl acrylate) and nanodimensional graphene oxide (GO) or reduced GO (rGO) is presented. Importantly, the nanocomposite latex undergoes film formation at ambient temperature, thus alleviating any need for high temperature or high pressure methods such as compression molding. The method entails synthesis of an aqueous nanocomposite latex via miniemulsion copolymerization relying on nanodimensional GO sheets as sole surfactant, followed by ambient temperature film formation resulting in homogeneous film. For comparison, a similar latex obtained by physical mixing of a polymer latex with an aqueous GO dispersion results in severe phase separation, illustrating that the miniemulsion approach using GO as surfactant is key to obtaining homogeneous nanocomposite films. Finally, it is demonstrated that the GO sheets can be readily reduced to rGO in situ by heat treatment of the film. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55, 2289–2297     

Anti-scratch and transparency properties of transparent conductive carbon nanotube films improved by incorporating polyethoxysiloxane

Transparent conductive films of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were fabricated by a simple method to significantly enhance anti-scratch and transparency properties by the incorporation of polyethoxysiloxane (PES). The reasons for changes in the mechanical properties and transmittance were investigated through the reflection property and morphology of thin films. With the incorporation of PES, the sheet resistance of the SWCNT thin film remained unchanged after the anti-scratch test. It was found that the transmittance of the thin films suddenly increased when the thickness of the PES layer was ca 100 nm. Although the PES incorporation resulted in a slight increase in the sheet resistance, the experimental results revealed that the sheet resistance of the SWCNT thin films with PES was lower than that of films without PES for the same transmittance due to the increase of the transmittance caused by the PES incorporation. We have demonstrated that the sheet resistance was halved at a transmittance of ～86% due to PES incorporation. SWCNT thin films with PES showed better electrical properties than those without PES after a bend test.     

石墨烯/银复合薄膜的制备及表征

采用静电自组装技术,通过交替沉积聚(二烯丙基二甲基氯化铵)(PDDA)(或硝酸银)和氧化石墨烯,制备氧化石墨烯/PDDA薄膜和氧化石墨烯/硝酸银复合薄膜。然后在600℃下通入氩气和氢气进行气氛还原得到石墨烯薄膜和石墨烯/银复合薄膜。采用AFM、SEM、XPS、UV-Vis以及四探针电阻仪等对薄膜结构及性质进行表征。结果表明,通过静电自组装法可以获得生长均匀的薄膜。对比于相同自组装次数的石墨烯薄膜,石墨烯/银复合薄膜具有更好的透光性和更低的薄膜方块电阻。在λ=500 nm时,四层石墨烯/银复合薄膜的透过率为85%左右,而石墨烯薄膜的透过率为72%左右;石墨烯薄膜的方阻为161.39 kΩ.□-1,而石墨烯/银复合薄膜的方阻为99.11 kΩ.□-1。     

Spectroscopic and electrical properties of SiO2 films prepared by simple and cost effective sol-gel process

Amorphous SiO2 thin films were prepared on glass and silicon substrates by cost effective sol-gel method. Tetra ethyl ortho silicate (TEOS) was used as the precursor material, ethanol as solvent and concentrated HCl as a catalyst. The films were characterized at different annealing temperatures. The optical transmittance was slightly increased with increase of annealing temperature. The refractive index was found to be 1.484 at 550 nm. The formation of SiO2 film was analyzed from FT-IR spectra. The MOS capacitors were designed using silicon (100) substrates. The current-voltage (I-V), capacitance-voltage (C-V) and dissipation-voltage (D-V) measurements were taken for all the annealed films deposited on Si (100). The variation of current density, resistivity and dielectric constant of SiO2 films with different annealing temperatures was investigated and discussed for its usage in applications like MOS capacitor. The results revealed the decrease of dielectric constant and increase of resistivity of SiO2 films with increasing annealing temperature.     

Evaporation of ethanol and ethanol-water mixtures studied by time-resolved infrared spectroscopy

The knowledge of the physics and the chemistry behind the evaporation of solvents is very important for the development of several technologies, especially in the fabrication of thin films from liquid phase and the organization of nanostructures by evaporation-induced self-assembly. Ethanol, in particular, is one of the most common solvents in sol-gel and evaporation-induced self-assembly processing of thin films, and a detailed understanding of its role during these processes is of fundamental importance. Rapid scan time-resolved infrared spectroscopy has been applied to study in situ the evaporation of ethanol and ethanol-water droplets on a ZnSe substrate. Whereas the evaporation rate of ethanol remains constant during the process, water is adsorbed by the ethanol droplet from the external environment and evaporates in three stages that are characterized by different evaporation rates. The adsorption and evaporation process of water in an ethanol droplet has been observed to follow a complex behavior: due to this reason, it has been analyzed by two-dimensional infrared correlation. Three different components in the water bending band have been resolved.     

可见光高催化活性GO/Ag3PO4/Ni复合薄膜的制备和性能

以磷酸铵和氧化石墨烯悬浊液的混合液为电解液,采用电化学共沉积法制备了Ag3PO4基GO/Ag3PO4/Ni复合薄膜。运用扫描电子显微镜(SEM)、能量色散谱(EDS)、X射线衍射(XRD)、拉曼光谱(Raman)和紫外可见漫反射光谱(UV-Vis DRS)等对其形貌、物相和光谱特性进行分析。最佳工艺制备的GO/Ag3PO4/Ni复合薄膜呈现出GO包覆在直径为100 nm左右的Ag3PO4纳米球外的表面形貌。GO片与Ag3PO4纳米球之间存在强电荷相互作用。与单独的Ag3PO4纳米球相比,GO片的附着导致带隙缩小,可见光区的吸收率增强。可见光下考察了复合薄膜降解罗丹明B的光催化活性和稳定性,并利用荧光光谱和捕获剂法对薄膜的光催化机理进行了探索。结果表明,GO片的加入不仅显著提高了Ag3PO4的光催化活性,而且提高了Ag3PO4的结构稳定性。光催化降解罗丹明B 60 min时,GO/Ag3PO4/Ni复合薄膜的降解率是Ag3PO4/Ni薄膜的1.32倍。在保持薄膜光催化活性基本不变的前提下可循环使用7次。GO优异的电荷传导性能,以及Ag3PO4纳米球与GO片之间的正协同效应是提高复合薄膜光催化性能的主要原因。     

Polymerization of graphene oxide nanosheet by using of aminoclay: Electrocatalytic activity of its platinum nanohybrids

This study describes the polymerization of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheet to reduced‐GO‐aminoclay (RGC) by covalent functionalization of chemically reactive epoxy groups on the basal planes of GO with amine groups of magnesium phyllosilicate clay (known as aminoclay). The resulting RGC sheets were characterized and applied to support platinum nanostructures at toluene/water interface. Pt nanoparticles (NPs) with diameters about several nanometers were adhered to RGC sheets by chemical reduction of [PtCl₂(cod)] (cod = cis,cis‐1,5‐cyclooctadiene) complex. Catalytic activity of Pt NPs thin films were investigated in the methanol oxidation reaction. Cyclic voltammetry results exhibit that the Pt/reduced‐GO (RGO) and Pt/RGC thin films showed improved catalytic activity in methanol oxidation reaction in comparison to other Pt NPs thin films, demonstrating that the prepared Pt/RGO and Pt/RGC thin films are promising catalysts for direct methanol fuel cell.     

In situ SAXS study on a new mechanism for mesostructure formation of ordered mesoporous carbons: thermally induced self-assembly

A new mechanism for mesostructure formation of ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) was investigated with in situ small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements: thermally induced self-assembly. Unlike the well-established evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA), the structure formation for organic-organic self-assembly of an oligomeric resol precursor and the block-copolymer templates Pluronic P123 and F127 does not occur during evaporation but only by following a thermopolymerization step at temperatures above 100 °C. The systems investigated here were cubic (Im3m), orthorhombic Fmmm) and 2D-hexagonal (plane group p6mm) mesoporous carbon phases in confined environments, as thin films and within the pores of anodic alumina membranes (AAMs), respectively. The thin films were prepared by spin-coating mixtures of the resol precursor and the surfactants in ethanol followed by thermopolymerization of the precursor oligomers. The carbon phases within the pores of AAMs were made by imbibition of the latter solutions followed by solvent evaporation and thermopolymerization within the solid template. This thermopolymerization step was investigated in detail with in situ grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS, for films) and in situ SAXS (for AAMs). It was found that the structural evolution strongly depends on the chosen temperature, which controls both the rate of the mesostructure formation and the spatial dimensions of the resulting mesophase. Therefore the process of structure formation differs significantly from the known EISA process and may rather be viewed as thermally induced self-assembly. The complete process of structure formation, template removal, and shrinkage during carbonization up to 1100 °C was monitored in this in situ SAXS study.     

三明治结构纳米银/氧化石墨烯基底的制备及SERS性能

采用易操作且低成本的静电自组装方法, 在质子化的玻璃基片上, 通过交替沉积氧化石墨烯(GO) 和带正电荷的银纳米粒子(AgNPs) 获得少数层GO和AgNPs复合薄膜(AgNPs/GO). 采用紫外-可见光吸收光谱、 原子力显微镜和扫描电子显微镜对复合薄膜的生长和表面形貌进行了表征. 结果表明, 通过调控AgNPs 溶胶浓度和自组装循环次数, 可以获得AgNPs/GO/AgNPs 的三明治结构, 并在基底表面形成均匀的AgNPs 聚集体. 表面增强拉曼散射(SERS)研究结果表明, AgNPs/GO-4基底具有最佳的SERS性能, 其对罗丹明6G(R6G) 和结晶紫的平均拉曼增强因子分别为3.4×10⁸和1.3×10⁹, 对R6G的最低检测浓度约为10^-12 mol/L. 多层三明治结构和较小颗粒间距使得AgNPs层之间产生强烈的耦合作用, 并在GO片层间产生大量的“热点”, 显著提高SERS性能, 而少数层GO具有强吸附性, 有利于分子在基底中富集, 从而起到化学增强作用, 提高SERS灵敏度.     

Size fractionation of graphene oxide sheets by pH-assisted selective sedimentation

Graphene oxide (GO) sheets prepared by Hummers' method have been separated into two portions with large (f1) or small (f2) lateral dimensions from their aqueous dispersion. This method is based on the selective precipitation of GO sheets with lateral dimensions mostly (>90%) larger than 40 μm(2) at a pH value of 4.0 because of their larger hydrophobic planes and fewer hydrophilic oxygenated groups. The hydrazine reduced Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of f1 showed much higher conductivities than those of f2. Furthermore, the thin film of f1 prepared by filtration exhibited a smaller d-space and much higher tensile strength and modulus than those of f2 films. The one-step size fractionation method reported here is simple, cheap, efficient, and environmentally friendly, which can be used for the size fractionation of GO sheets in large scale.     

A Review on Graphene Oxide Two-dimensional Macromolecules: from Single Molecules to Macro-assembly

Graphene oxide(GO), which consists of two-dimensional(2 D) sp² carbon hexagonal networks and oxygen-contained functional groups, has laid the foundation of mass production and applications of graphene materials. Made by chemical oxidation of graphite, GO is highly dispersible or even solubilized in water and polar organic solvents, which resolves the hard problem of graphene processing and opens a door to wet-processing of graphene. Despite its defects, GO is easy to functionalize, dope, punch holes, cut into pieces, conduct chemical reduction, form lyotropic liquid crystal, and assemble into macroscopic materials with tunable structures and properties as a living building block. GO sheet has been viewed as a single molecule, a particle, as well as a soft polymer material. An overview on GO as a 2 D macromolecule is essential for studying its intrinsic properties and guiding the development of relevant subjects. This review mainly focuses on recent advances of GO sheets, from single macromolecular behavior to macro-assembled graphene material properties. The first part of this review offers a brief introduction to the synthesis of GO molecules. Then the chemical structure and physical properties of GO are presented, as well as its polarity in solvent and rheology behavior. Several key parameters governing the ultimate stability of GO colloidal behavior, including size, p H and the presence of cation in aqueous dispersions, are highlighted. Furthermore, the discovery of GO liquid crystal and functionalization of GO molecules have built solid new foundations of preparing highly ordered, architecture-tunable, macro-assembled graphene materials, including 1 D graphene fibers, 2 D graphene films, and 3 D graphene architectures. The GO-based composites are also viewed and the interactions between these target materials and GO are carefully discussed. Finally, an outlook is provided in this field, where GO is regarded as macromolecules, pointing out the challenges and opportunities that exist in the field. We hope that this review will be beneficial to the understanding of GO in terms of chemical structure,molecular properties, macro-assembly and potential applications, and encourage further development to extend its investigations from basic research to practical applications.     

pH‐Modulated Molecular Assemblies and Surface Properties of Metal–Organic Supercontainers at the Air–Water Interface

The orientation of metal–organic supercontainer (MOSC) molecules in Langmuir films was systematically studied at the air–water interface. The acidity of the aqueous subphases plays a significant role in tuning the orientation of MOSC molecules in the Langmuir films. Furthermore, Langmuir–Blodgett films of MOSCs were prepared and the uniform multilayer structures demonstrated various surface properties, depending on their conditions of fabrication. Our use of Langmuir films provides a novel approach to access tunable assemblies of MOSC molecules in two‐dimensional thin films.     

TiO2 anatase-based membranes with hierarchical porosity and photocatalytic properties

Taking benefit of previously obtained results, stable complex organic-inorganic hybrid suspensions are successfully prepared by mixing a polystyrene latex aqueous suspension, a titania hydrosol and a nonionic triblock copolymer. These suspensions can be then deposited as thin films on dense or porous substrates. Solvent evaporation induces the formation of spherical micelles by self-assembly of the amphiphilic molecules during the drying of the films. Two types of isolated spherical macropores (few ten nanometers) and mesopores (4-5 nm) are generated inside the layers by the thermal removal of the polystyrene particles and of the micelles, respectively. The remaining inorganic network exhibits an additional interconnected microporosity with a mean pore size of 1.5 nm, resulting from the aggregation of the anatase nanoparticles. A complete removal of the templating units at low temperature is possible using the photocatalytic properties of the anatase network. Such layers exhibit attractive properties for the design of ceramic membranes. They can be advantageously used in order to increase the permeability of the separative layer and to reduce the number of intermediate layers of these asymmetric structures.     

Two-dimensional Nitrogen-doped Mesoporous Carbon/Graphene Nanocomposites from the Self-assembly of Block Copolymer Micelles in Solution

The self-assembly of block copolymer in solution has proven to be an effective strategy for building up a wide range of nanomaterials with diverse structures and applications. This paper reports a facile self-assembly approach towards two-dimensional(2D) sandwich-like mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites(denoted as m NC/r GO) with well-defined large mesopores. The strategy involves the synergistic self-assembly of polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide)(PS-b-PEO) spherical micelles, m-phenylenediamine(m PD) monomers and GO in solution and the subsequent carbonization at 900 ℃. The resultant m NC/r GO nanosheets have an average pore size of 19 nm, a high specific surface of 812 m~2·g~(-1) and a nitrogen content of 2.2 wt%. As an oxygen reduction reaction(ORR) catalyst, the unique structural features render the metal-free nanosheets excellent electrocatalytic performance. In a 0.1 mol·L~(-1) KOH alkaline medium, m NC/r GO exhibits a four-electron transfer pathway with a high half-wave-potential(E_(1/2)) of +0.77 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode(RHE) and a limiting current density(JL) of 5.2 mA·cm~(-2), which are well comparable with those of the commercial Pt/C catalysts.     

Direct generation of silica nanowire-based thin film on various substrates with tunable surface nanostructure and extreme repellency toward complex liquids

We report our new achievement on the direct generation of linear polyethylenimine@silica hybrid and silica thin films on various substrates, which is composed of 10 nm nanowire silica structure with tunable micro/nano hierarchical surface morphology. We found that a process for the rapid and controlled self-assembly of crystalline template layer of linear polyethylenimine on substrate surface is critical for the formation of ultrathin silica nanowire structure and micro/nano hierarchical morphology, since the template linear polyethylenimine layer directly promotes the hydrolytic condensation of alkoxysilanes. Templated silica mineralization on the self-assembled linear polyethylenimine layer was confirmed by the studies of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and thin film X-ray diffraction (XRD). The surface of silica nanostructure and hierarchy could be well controlled by simply adjusting the conditions for LPEI assembly, such as the polymer concentrations and substrate surface property. After a simple fluorocarbon modification, the hierarchical silica nanowire thin film demonstrated robust and reliable super-repelling property toward a series of aqueous liquids (such as commercial inkjet (IJ) ink, soy source, milk). Comparative studies clearly confirmed the critical importance of surface hierarchy for enhancing super-repelling property. Moreover, we found that the forcibly formed dirty sports (both wet and dry) from the complexly composed liquids on the super-antiwetting surface could be easily and completely cleaned by simple water drop flow. We expect these tailored nanosurfaces would have the potentials for practical technological applications, such as liquid transferring, self-cleaning, microfluid, and biomedical-related devices.     

Controlled Nanopores in Thin Films of Nonstoichiometrically Supramolecularly Assembled Graft Copolymers

Herein, nanometer‐scale morphologies of graft‐copolymer‐like supramolecular thin films, composed of sulfonic acid terminated polystyrene (SPS) and poly(2‐vinylpyridine) (P2VP), and their application to antireflection coatings were investigated. The intermolecular complexes of SPS and P2VP, formed through nonstoichiometric multiple hydrogen bonding between the sulfonic acid group of SPS and the nitrogen atom in pyridine unit of P2VP, occurring in film deposition allowed for the formation of spherical micelles (with SPS and P2VP as the corona and core, respectively) in the thin film. Interestingly, the domain size of the micelles was tunable from approximately 20 to 90 nm on average by controlling either the blend ratio of components or the concentration of polymer solution. Furthermore, nanoporous thin films could be easily prepared by removing the core of micelle‐based nanostructures by using a simple solvent etching process, leaving sulfonic acid groups on the surface of nanopores, which can be utilized as potential functional sites. Those resultant nanoporous thin films were conveniently employed as an antireflection layer on a glass substrate, giving a maximum 97.8 % transmittance in the visible wavelength range.     

Synthesis of polystyrene nanoparticles “armoured” with nanodimensional graphene oxide sheets by miniemulsion polymerization

Polystyrene particles “armoured” with nanosized graphene oxide (GO) sheets have been prepared by aqueous miniemulsion polymerization of styrene, exploiting the amphiphilic properties of GO in the absence of conventional surfactants. The nanoscale GO sheets were prepared from graphite nanofibers of diameter approximately 100 nm based on a novel procedure, thus effectively ensuring the absence of larger sheets. Polymerization proceeded to high conversion with minor coagulation, with final number‐average particle diameters of approximately 500 nm, but relatively broad particle size distributions. Scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed particles with a textured surface, consistent with the expected morphology. Interestingly, analysis of GO sheets recovered from the polymerization revealed that the GO sheets are partially reduced during the polymerization—approximately 50% of the initial carboxyl groups of the GO were lost, consistent with some loss in colloidal stability at high conversion. The overall approach offers a convenient and attractive synthetic route to novel graphene‐based polymeric nanostructures. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2013     

ZnSnO3透明导电薄膜：溶胶-凝胶法制备及性能

采用溶胶-凝胶(Sol-Gel)过程和旋涂法制备了Zn-Sn-O系统薄膜。通过对干凝胶的热重-差示扫描同步热分析(TG-DSC),研究了干凝胶在烧结过程中的反应历程。采用X射线衍射(XRD)、X射线光电子能谱(XPS)、场发射扫描电镜(FE-SEM)以及紫外-可见透过率(UV-Vis)等表征了烧结后薄膜的晶相、晶格缺陷、微观形貌以及紫外-可见光透过率。本文还研究了烧结温度、N2气氛热处理以及组成变化对薄膜电阻率的影响,结果表明:偏锡酸锌ZnSnO3晶体薄膜具有较低的电阻率;当nZn/(nZn+nSn)=50.3at%时,薄膜的电阻率达极小值,约为8.0×102Ω.cm。偏锡酸锌ZnSnO3晶体的导电机理研究表明:晶格中间隙阳离子含量的增加有利于薄膜电阻率的降低,而氧空位的形成则使其电阻率升高。薄膜的紫外-可见光透过率(UV-Vis)表明:偏锡酸锌ZnSnO3晶体薄膜在400~900 nm的可见光波段透过率可达80%以上。