[精品论文]Bioinspired robust integration of graphene composites.doc

精品论文Bio-inspired robust integration of graphene compositesCHENG Qunfeng, WU Mengxi, JIANG Lei(School of Chemistry and Environment, BeiHang University, Beijing, 100191)5Abstract: Inspired by the natural nacre, we developed a novel strategy for fabricating the integration of supertough and high strength artificial nacre based on GO sheets via conjugated cross-linking. Highly -conjugated long chain molecules of 10,12-pentacosadiyn-1-ol (PCDO) are cross-linked with GO sheets only with content of 6.5 wt%, resulting in huge displacement when loading and adsorption of much more fracture energy. The toughness is two times higher than that of natural nacre. Furthermore,10the -conjugated polymers could add additional benefit to the high electrical conductivity of the chemically reduced GO (rGO). This study opens the door toward biomimetic production of GO- or rGO-based composites with supertough and highly conductive properties, which will have greatpromising applications in many fields like aerospace, flexible supercapacitor electrodes, artificialmuscle, and tissue engineering.15Key words: Bio-inspired; artificial nacre; graphene oxide; mechanical properties1IntroductionNatural nacre, consisted of almost 95 vol.% inorganic content (calcium carbonate) and 5 vol.%elastic biopolymers, possesses a unique combination of remarkable strength and toughness,120which is attributed to its hierarchical nano-/micro-scale structure and precisely designed inorganic-organic interface.2 Inspired by the intrinsic relationship between the structures and the mechanical properties lying in the natural nacre, different types of nacre-like layered nanocomposites have been fabricated with two dimensional (2D) inorganic additives including glass flake,3 alumina flake,4 graphene oxide,5 layered double hydroxides,6 nanoclay,7 and25flattened double-walled carbon nanotube.8 Although great progresses have been achieved intensile mechanical properties,7c, 8-9 only very rare cases of the artificial layered composites with excellent toughness are obtained.6, 10 One of the most important causes is the relatively low interfacial strength between interlayers of the artificial nacre. Recently, 2D graphene attracts a lot of research interest due to their outstanding electrical, thermal and mechanical properties,11 and30many graphene-based devices have been fabricated, e.g. bulk composites,12 one-dimensionalfibers,13 supercapacitors,14 etc. As the water-soluble derivative of graphene, graphene oxide (GO) with the rich functional groups on the surface is one of the best candidates for fabricating the artificial nacre, because functional surface groups allow for chemical cross-linking to improve the interfacial strength of the adjacent GO layers. Until now, several methods have been developed to35functionalize the individual GO sheets and enhance the resultant mechanical properties, including divalent ion (Mg2+, Ca2+) modification,15 polyallylamine16 or alkylamines17 functionalization, borate cross-linking,18 glutaraldehyde (GA) treatment,19 - interaction20 and hydrogen bonding.21 Although the obtained strength and stiffness are significantly enhanced, the modified materials always accompany a reduced ductility or toughness.18 In a brief, it still remains a great40challenge to obtain the supertough artificial nacre based on the 2D GO sheets.Herein, inspired by the relationship of excellent toughness and hierarchical nano-/micro-scale structure of the natural nacre, we developed a novel strategy for fabricating the supertoughFoundations: This work was supported by the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (20101102120044), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (YWF-12-LXGY-017), and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-12-0034).Brief author introduction:Cheng Qunfeng, Associate Professor,Bio-inspired materials, Key Laboratory ofBio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education. E-mail: cheng- 9 -artificial nacre based on the 2D GO sheets via conjugated cross-linking. Highly -conjugated long chain polymers made of 10,12-pentacosadiyn-1-ol (PCDO) monomers22 are cross-linked with the45GO sheets, resulting in a huge displacement when loading and adsorption of much more fracture energy. The toughness is two times higher than that of the natural nacre. Furthermore, the -conjugated polymers could add additional benefit to the high electrical conductivity of the chemically reduced GO (rGO). It can be highly expected that this novel type of the supertough andconductive artificial nacre has great potential in aerospace,23 flexible supercapacitors50electrodes,14 artificial muscle,24 and tissue engineering.252Experimental section2.1 MaterialsGO was purchased from XianFeng NANO Co., Ltd. 10,12-pentacosadiyn-1-ol (PCDO) was purchased from Tokyo Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. 57 wt.% HI acid was purchased from55Sigma-Aldrich.2.2 Fabrication of GO filmsGO was dispersed in deionized water. Exfoliation was performed by sonicating an aqueous suspension of GO (100 mL, 20 mg mL1 ) for 1 h. Un-exfoliated aggregates were removed from the solution via centrifugation, and the supernatant solution was collected. The GO films were60assembled by vacuum-assisted filtration, followed by air drying and peeling from the filter.2.3 Preparation of rGO-PCDO compositesThe GO films were immersed in a PCDO solution. Subsequently, the PCDO-grafted GO films were treated under UV irradiation at a wavelength of 365 nm. The final GO-PCDO composites were rinsed. The resultant GO-PCDO composites were reduced by HI solution. Finally, the65rGO-PCDO composites were obtained after washing and drying.2.4 MeasurementsMechanical properties were evaluated using a Shimadzu AGS-X Tester at a loading rate of 1 mm min1 with a gauge length of 5 mm. All samples were cut into strips with the length of 20 mm and the width of 3 mm. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images were obtained by the70HITACHI S-4800. The atomic force microscopy were characterized by a Leica TCS SP5. The thermogravimetric analysis was performed on TG/DTA6300, NSK under N2 with a temperature rising rate of 5 ºC·min-1. All X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements were taken in an ESCALab220i-XL (Thermo Scientific) using a monochromatic Al-K X-ray source. Raman spectroscopy measurements were taken using a LabRAM HR800 (Horiba Jobin Yvon) with the75excitation energy of 2.54 eV (488 nm). X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments were carried out with a D/max-2500 (Rigaku) instrument using Cu-K radiation. FTIR spectra were collected using a Thermo Nicolet nexus-470 FTIR instrument.3Results and DiscussionTo assemble the GO sheets, GO sheets were firstly dispersed into deionized water. The80thickness of individual GO sheets was measured to be about 1.0 nm by atomic force microscopy imaging (Figure 1). Subsequently, the GO dispersion was infiltrated with vacuum assistance and assembled into the layered GO films as shown in step 1 in Figure 2a. The PCDO was then introduced into the pre-built GO films by soaking the GO films in a pre-mixed tetrahydrofuran and859095100105110115PCDO solution. After several hours, the esterification reaction between alkanol at one end of the PCDO molecules and carboxylic acids on the surface of the GO sheets was finished, and the PCDO monomers were grafted on the surface of the GO sheets (step 2 in Figure 2a). To improve the interfacial strength and conductivity of the resultant composites, the PCDO molecules were cross-linked via 1,4-addtion polymerization of their diacetylenic units under UV irradiation (step 3in Figure 2a).22 Thermogravimetric analysis reveals that the weight loading of the PCDO in thecomposites is about 6.5 wt.%, comparable to the natural nacre. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the interlayer distance of the GO-PCDO composites was increased from 7.596 Å (2= 11.64o) to 7.978 Å (2 = 11.08o) in respect to the pure GO films, suggesting that the PCDO wassuccessfully embedded into the GO films, as shown in Figure 3a. Finally, the GO-PCDO composites were reduced by hydroiodic acid (HI) solution, not only aiming at removal of the unreacted chemical groups on the GO sheets but also improvement of the conductivity of the synthesized composites (step 4 in Figure 2a). The distance of the reduced GO-PCDO (rGO-PCDO)was decreased to 3.666 Å (2 = 24.26o), higher than 3.648 Å (2 = 24.38o) of the pure rGO films,indicating that after reduction, the PCDO polymers were still immobilized among the rGO sheets.Fig. 1 a) AFM image of the as-prepared GO sheets on the mica substrate and b) the corresponding height profile.The thickness of the GO sheet is about 1.0 nm.Fig. 2 a) Scheme of the fabrication procedure of the ultratough and conductive artificial nacre based on GO andPCDO. b) FTIR spectra of pure GO films, GO-PCDO composites and rGO-PCDO composites. Peaks at11001250 cm1 and 1770 cm-1 indicate successful grafting of PCDO on the surface of GO-PCDO andrGO-PCDO. c-e) XPS spectra of pure GO films, GO-PCDO composites and rGO-PCDO composites. The decrease in the peak intensity of C=O and C-O after HI reduction demonstrates removal of the unreacted functional groups.The successful introduction of the PCDO into the rGO films is also proved by spectroscopic characterization. As for the pure GO films, the peak at 1730 cm-1 in FTIR spectrum is assigned to the stretching vibration of the carboxylic acid. After esterification, the carboxylic acid peak at1730 cm-1 is weakened, accompanying with appearance of strong peaks at 11001250 cm1corresponding to the stretching vibration of the COC moiety in ester groups and at 1770 cm1corresponding to the stretching vibration of the C=O moiety in ester groups. It is evident that all120125130135140these characteristic peaks are kept intact after HI reduction, confirming the strong esterification between the PCDO and the GO sheets. Though the PCDO polymers are stably attached on the GO surfaces, HI reduction could give rise to considerable elimination of the unreacted groups on the surface of the rGO sheets, which is disclosed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) (Figure2c, 2d and 2e). The broad C1s peak of both the pure GO and the GO-PCDO can be fitted into fourpeaks with the binding energy at 284.7, 286.7, 287.4 and 288.9 eV, corresponding to the C-C, C-O, C=O and C(O)O groups, respectively. The peak intensity of C=O and C-O of the GO-PCDO composites is significantly decreased after chemical reduction by HI. Accordingly, the ratio of O1s to C1s is decreased significantly after HI reduction. Finally, the electronic structure change in the GO sheets after chemical functionalization with the PCDO is explored by Raman spectra. Aftergrafted of the PCDO, the intensity ratio of D band ( 1300 cm-1) to G band ( 1590 cm-1) (D/Gratio) is increased from 0.923 of the pure GO films to 0.954 of the GO-PCDO composites. Analogously, after HI reduction the D/G ratio is increased from 1.151 of the rGO films to 1.178 of the rGO-PCDO composites, as shown in Figure 3b. The above results highlight that the cross-linking bonds with the PCDO would simultaneously provide the strong interface strength and the electron-transfer path between the GO sheets. Table 1 summarizes the characterization results from XRD, Raman and XPS spectroscopy.Fig. 3 a) XRD spectra of pure GO films, pure rGO films, GO-PCDO composites and rGO-PCDO composites. b) Raman spectra of pure GO films, pure rGO films, GO-PCDO composites and rGO-PCDO composites. The intensity ratio of D band ( 1300 cm-1) to G band (1590 cm-1) (D/G ratio) is increased from 0.923 of the pure GO films to 0.954 of the GO-PCDO composites. After HI reduction, the D/G is increased from 1.151 of the rGO films to 1.178 of the rGO-PCDO composites. These results indicate that the PCDO is successfully grafted on the GO sheets.Tab. 1 Spectroscopy results of GO films and GO-PCDO composites before and after HI reduction.145SampleXRD Raman XPSd-spacing (nm) ID/IG O1s/C1s(atomic ratios)150GO 0.7596 0.923 0.48GO-PCDO 0.7978 1.151 0.41 rGO0.3648 0.954 0.37 rGO-PCDO0.3666 1.178 0.25155The typical stress-strain curves of the prepared samples are shown in Figure 4a. The tensile strength and toughness of the pure GO films are 95.4 ± 3.9 MPa and 0.37 ± 0.06 MJm-3, respectively, similar to the previous report.29 Due to the weak hydrogen bonds between the160165170175180185190195adjacent GO sheets, the strength and toughness of the pure GO films are lower than those of the natural nacre (tensile strength of 80-135 MPa and toughness of 1.8 MJm-3).27 When the PCDO molecules are grafted on the GO sheets and cross-linked together, the tensile strength is increased to 106.6 ± 17.1 MPa, comparable to that of the natural nacre, while the toughness is dramatically raised to 2.52 ± 0.59 MJm-3, which is about 40% higher than that of the natural nacre. Since the graphene sheets have exhibited much higher mechanical and electrical properties in respect to the GO sheets,30 many methods have been developed to reduce the GO sheets into the rGO sheets by removing the oxygen-containing groups with recovery of the conjugated structure.31 In this study,HI is used to reduce the GO sheets.32 After reduction, the tensile strength and toughness of thepure rGO films are increased to 111.2 ± 14.5 MPa and 1.49 ± 0.03 MJm-3, respectively.As for the artificial nacre of the rGO-PCDO composites, the average tensile strength is increased to 129.6 ± 18.5 MPa, and the maximum value can reach 156.8 MPa, higher than that of the natural nacre. More remarkably, the toughness of the rGO-PCDO composites is up to 3.91 ±0.03 MJm-3, which is two times higher than that of the natural nacre. The excellent mechanicalpropertiesof the rGO-PCDOcompositesare attributed to the layeredhierarchical nano-/micro-scale structure and the unique chemica