The chemical reduction of graphite oxide (GO) to graphite by either NaBH4 or hydroquinone and also
its surface modification with neutral, primary aliphatic amines and amino acids are described. Treatment
of GO with NaBH4 leads to turbostatic graphite that upon calcination under an inert atmosphere is
transformed to highly ordered graphitic carbon, while the reduction with hydroquinone yields directly
crystalline graphite under soft thermal conditions. On account of the surface-exposed epoxy groups present
in the GO solid, its surface modification with neutral, primary aliphatic amines or amine-containing
molecules (amino acids and aminosiloxanes) takes place easily through the corresponding nucleophilic
substitution reactions. In this way, valuable GO derivatives can be obtained, like molecular pillared GO,
organically modified GO affording in organic solvents stable organosols or hydrophilic GO affording in
water stable hydrosols and possessing direct cation exchange sites. The potential combination of surface
modification and chemical reduction of GO in producing novel graphite based materials is also presented.
We show that covalent functionalization of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) via 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition is a powerful method for enhancing the ability to process CNTs and facilitating the preparation of hybrid composites, which is achieved solely by mixing. CNTs were functionalized with phenol groups, providing stable dispersions in a range of polar solvents, including water. Additionally, the functionalized CNTs could easily be combined with polymers and layered aluminosilicate clay minerals to give homogeneous, coherent, transparent CNT thin films and gels.
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