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Experimental and computational investigation of reduced graphene oxide nanoplatelets stabilized in poly(styrene sulfonate) sodium salt

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Abstract

The production of large-area interfaces and the use of scalable methods to build up designed nanostructures generating advanced functional properties are of high interest for many materials science applications. Nevertheless, large-area coverage remains a major problem even for pristine graphene, and here we present a hybrid, composite graphene-like material soluble in water that can be exploited in many areas such as energy storage, electrodes fabrication, selective membranes and biosensing. Graphene oxide (GO) was produced by the traditional Hummers’ method being further reduced in the presence of poly(styrene sulfonate) sodium salt (PSS), thus creating stable reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanoplatelets wrapped by PSS (GPSS). Molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to further clarify the interactions between PSS molecules and rGO nanoplatelets, with calculations supported by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis. The intermolecular forces between rGO nanoplatelets and PSS lead to the formation of a hybrid material (GPSS) stabilized by van der Waals forces, allowing the fabrication of high-quality layer-by-layer (LbL) films with poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH). Raman and electrical characterizations corroborated the successful modifications in the electronic structures from GO to GPSS after the chemical treatment, resulting in (PAH/GPSS) LbL films four orders of magnitude more conductive than (PAH/GO).

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Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to FAPESP (2010/13033-6, 2012/01484-9, 2015/14703-9, 2016/00023-9, 2014/24547-1 and 2014/11410-8), INEO (CNPq) for financial support, and also Bernhard Gross Polymer Group (IFSC–USP), Ângelo L. Gobbi and Maria Helena O. Piazzetta at Laboratory of Microfabrication (LNNano/CNPEM) for the cooperation in microelectrodes fabrication. This research also used the computing resources and assistance of the John David Rogers Computing Center (CCJDR) in the Institute of Physics “Gleb Wataghin,” University of Campinas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. POSMAT – Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência e Tecnologia de Materiais, UNESP – Univ Estadual Paulista, Bauru, SP, Brazil

    Celina M. Miyazaki & Marco A. E. Maria

  2. Universidade Federal de São Carlos – DFQM, Sorocaba, SP, Brazil

    Celina M. Miyazaki

  3. Faculdade de Engenharia de Sorocaba – FACENS, Sorocaba, SP, Brazil

    Marco A. E. Maria

  4. Applied Physics Department, State University of Campinas, Campinas, SP, 13083-970, Brazil

    Marco A. E. Maria, Daiane Damasceno Borges, Cristiano F. Woellner, Gustavo Brunetto, Alexandre F. Fonseca, Abner de Siervo, Douglas S. Galvao & Antonio Riul Jr.

  5. UNESP – Univ Estadual Paulista, Presidente Prudente, SP, Brazil

    Carlos J. L. Constantino

  6. Centro Universitário Central Paulista – UNICEP, São Carlos, SP, Brazil

    Marcelo A. Pereira-da-Silva

  7. Instituto de Física de São Carlos – USP, São Carlos, SP, Brazil

    Marcelo A. Pereira-da-Silva

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  1. Celina M. Miyazaki
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Miyazaki, C.M., Maria, M.A.E., Borges, D.D. et al. Experimental and computational investigation of reduced graphene oxide nanoplatelets stabilized in poly(styrene sulfonate) sodium salt. J Mater Sci 53, 10049–10058 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-2325-1

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