Metal Oxide Nanoparticle Growth on Graphene via Chemical Activation with Atomic Oxygen

Chemically interfacing the inert basal plane of graphene with other materials has limited the development of graphene-based catalysts, composite materials, and devices. Here, we overcome this limitation by chemically activating epitaxial graphene on SiC(0001) using atomic oxygen. Atomic oxygen produ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Chemical Society 2013-12, Vol.135 (48), p.18121-18125
Main Authors: Johns, James E, Alaboson, Justice M. P, Patwardhan, Sameer, Ryder, Christopher R, Schatz, George C, Hersam, Mark C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Graphite - chemistry
Metals - chemistry
Models, Molecular
Nanoparticles - chemistry
Nanoparticles - ultrastructure
Oxides - chemistry
Oxygen - chemistry
Zinc - chemistry
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Summary:Chemically interfacing the inert basal plane of graphene with other materials has limited the development of graphene-based catalysts, composite materials, and devices. Here, we overcome this limitation by chemically activating epitaxial graphene on SiC(0001) using atomic oxygen. Atomic oxygen produces epoxide groups on graphene, which act as reactive nucleation sites for zinc oxide nanoparticle growth using the atomic layer deposition precursor diethyl zinc. In particular, exposure of epoxidized graphene to diethyl zinc abstracts oxygen, creating mobile species that diffuse on the surface to form metal oxide clusters. This mechanism is corroborated with a combination of scanning probe microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and density functional theory and can likely be generalized to a wide variety of related surface reactions on graphene.
ISSN:0002-7863
1520-5126
DOI:10.1021/ja408248z