• Rösicke, F.; Gluba, M.A.; Hinrichs, K.; Sun, G.; Nickel, N.H.; Rappich, J.: Quantifying the electrochemical maleimidation of large area graphene. Electrochemistry Communications 57 (2015), p. 52-55

10.1016/j.elecom.2015.05.010

Abstract:
The covalent modification of large-area graphene sheets by p-(N-Maleimido)phenyl (p-MP) via electrochemical grafting of p-(N-Maleimido)benzenediazoniumtetrafluoroborate (p-MBDT) is successfully demonstrated for the first time. The deposition process is monitored in-situ using the mass change of a graphene/SiNx:H/Au-coated quartz crystal microbalance(QCM) chip. The resulting mass increase correlates with a maleimide thickness of approximately 2.3 molecular layers. The presence of an infrared absorption band at 1726 cm-1 shows that maleimide groups were deposited on the substrates. Raman backscattering spectra reveal the presence of D and D′ modes of the graphene layer, indicating that p-MP forms covalent bonds to graphene. Using the mass change and charge transfer during the potential cycling the faradaic efficiency of the functionalisation process was deduced, which amounts to 22%.