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The Influence of Graphene on the Electrical Communication Through Organic Layers on Graphite and Gold Electrodes
Author(s) -
Zong Xidan,
Kong Na,
Liu Jingquan,
Yang Wenrong,
Cao Mengmei,
Gooding J. Justin
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
electroanalysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.574
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1521-4109
pISSN - 1040-0397
DOI - 10.1002/elan.201300246
Subject(s) - graphene , cyclic voltammetry , electrode , materials science , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , graphite , monolayer , dielectric spectroscopy , electron transfer , scanning electron microscope , adsorption , graphene oxide paper , electrochemistry , chemical engineering , inorganic chemistry , nanotechnology , photochemistry , chemistry , organic chemistry , composite material , engineering
The influence of graphene on the electrical communication through organic layers fabricated on graphite and gold electrodes is investigated. These layers were prepared by in situ reductive adsorption of 4‐aminobenzoic acid in the presence of NaNO 2 and HCl to have surface bound carboxylic acid functionalities, followed by covalent attachment of 1‐aminopyrene via an amide coupling reaction to have surface bound pyrene groups for graphene immobilization via noncovalent ππ stacking interaction. The coverage of the layers created via reductive adsorption on graphite electrodes was found to be much higher than that on gold electrodes. It was revealed that graphene significantly enhances the electrical communication through the layers on graphite electrodes but on gold electrodes the enhancement effect through the layers was only minor. However, when gold electrodes were modified with a self‐assembled monolayer (SAM) of propanethiol the subsequent immobilization of graphene resulted in a significant enhancement of the electrical communication. It is also found that immobilization of graphene could affect the electron transfer between the redox probe, pyrene and the underlying electrodes. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the graphene sheets. Cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were also used to characterize the stepwise modified electrodes.