Accelerating the development of transparent graphene electrodes through basic science driven chemical functionalization.

Chemical functionalization is required to adapt graphenes properties to many applications. However, most covalent functionalization schemes are spontaneous or defect driven and are not suitable for applications requiring directed assembly of molecules on graphene substrates. In this work, we demonstrated electrochemically driven covalent bonding of phenyl iodoniums onto epitaxial graphene. The amount of chemisorption was demonstrated by varying the duration of the electrochemical driving potential. Chemical, electronic, and defect states of phenyl-modified graphene were studied by photoemission spectroscopy, spatially resolved Raman spectroscopy, and water contact angle measurement. Covalent attachment rehybridized some of the delocalized graphene sp2 orbitals to localized sp3 states. Control over the relative spontaneity (reaction rate) of covalent graphene functionalization is an important first step to the practical realization of directed molecular assembly on graphene. More than 10 publications, conference presentations, and program highlights were produced (some invited), and follow-on funding was obtained to continue this work.