Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Ciesielski, Artur
• Samorì, Paolo

Titel

Supramolecular Approaches to Graphene: From Self-Assembly to Molecule-Assisted Liquid-Phase Exfoliation

Ist Teil von

• Advanced materials (Weinheim), 2016-08, Vol.28 (29), p.6030-6051

Ort / Verlag

Germany: Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Quelle

Wiley-Blackwell Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Graphene, a one‐atom thick two‐dimensional (2D) material, is at the core of an ever‐growing research effort due to its combination of unique mechanical, thermal, optical and electrical properties. Two strategies are being pursued for the graphene production: the bottom‐up and the top‐down. The former relies on the use of covalent chemistry approaches on properly designed molecular building blocks undergoing chemical reaction to form 2D covalent networks. The latter occurs via exfoliation of bulk graphite into individual graphene sheets. Amongst the various types of exfoliations exploited so far, ultrasound‐induced liquid‐phase exfoliation (UILPE) is an attractive strategy, being extremely versatile, up‐scalable and applicable to a variety of environments. In this review, we highlight the recent developments that have led to successful non‐covalent functionalization of graphene and how the latter can be exploited to promote the process of molecule‐assisted UILPE of graphite. The functionalization of graphene with non‐covalently interacting molecules, both in dispersions as well as in dry films, represents a promising and modular approach to tune various physical and chemical properties of graphene, eventually conferring to such a 2D system a multifunctional nature. Non‐covalent functionalization of graphene relies on the use of principles of supramolecular chemistry and can be used to finely tune the properties of graphene and enhance its production by means of molecule‐assisted liquid‐phase exfoliation.