Water-soluble polymer exfoliated grapheme : as catalyst support and sensor

• Main Authors: Wang, Haibo, Xia, Bao Yu, Yan, Ya, Li, Nan, Wang, Jing-Yuan, Wang, Xin
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Chemistry::Biochemistry
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/101112; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/16745
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this paper, we obtained various water-soluble polymer functionalized graphene in dimethyl sulfoxide under ultrasonication. The atomic force microscope analysis and control experiment shows the water-soluble polymer is the crucial part to help solvent molecules separate interlayer. Such polymer/graphene exhibits high conductivity and tunable surface property, as confirmed by the selected area electron diffraction and Raman and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. As a result, a catalyst based on polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP)/graphene shows better methanol oxidation performance than that based on PVP/reduced graphene oxide. By changing to another polymer, poly(4-vinylpyridine)/graphene shows a stable and reversible response to pH, and demonstrates its potential for sensor application.