Fast and controlled fabrication of porous graphene oxide: Application of AFM tapping for mechano-chemistry

Liangyong Chu*, Alexander V. Korobko, Marcel Bus, Bart Boshuizen, Ernst J.R. Sudhölter, Nicolaas A.M. Besseling

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper describes a novel method to fabricate porous graphene oxide (PGO) from GO by exposure to oxygen plasma. Compared to other methods to fabricate PGO described so far, e.g. the thermal and steam etching methods, oxygen plasma etching method is much faster. We studied the development of the porosity with exposure time using atomic force microscopy (AFM). It was found that the development of PGO upon oxygen-plasma exposure can be controlled by tapping mode AFM scanning using a Si tip. AFM tapping stalls the growth of pores upon further plasma exposure at a level that coincides with the fraction of sp2 carbons in the GO starting material. We suggest that AFM tapping procedure changes the bond structure of the intermediate PGO structure, and these stabilized PGO structures cannot be further etched by oxygen plasma. This constitutes the first report of tapping AFM as a tool for local mechano-chemistry.

Original languageEnglish
Article number185301
Pages (from-to)1-10
Number of pages10
JournalNanotechnology
Volume29
Issue number18
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Mar 2018

Keywords

  • atomic force microscopy
  • graphene oxide
  • mechano-chemistry
  • oxygen plasma
  • Porous network

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