• Advances in nano research
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.357-375
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• 2018

Two dimensional (2D) atomic layered nanomaterials exhibit some of the most striking phenomena in modern materials research and hold promise for a wide range of applications including energy and biomedical technologies. Graphene has received much attention for having extremely high surface area to mass ratio and excellent electric conductivity. Graphene has also been shown to maximize the activity of surface-assembled metal nanoparticle catalysts due to its unique characteristics of enhancing mass transport of reactants to catalysts. This paper specifically investigates the strategy of pre-formed nanoparticle self-assembly used for the formation of various metal nanoparticles supported on graphene families such as graphene, graphene oxide, and reduced graphene oxide and aims at understanding the interactions between ligand-capped metal nanoparticles and 2D nanomaterials. By varying the functional groups on the ligands between alkyl, aromatic, amine, and alcohol groups, different interactions such as van der Waals, ${\pi}-{\pi}$ stacking, dipole-dipole, and hydrogen bonding are formed as the 2D hybrids produced.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.218-224
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• 2013

Graphene oxide (GO) was prepared by the Hummers and Offeman method from graphite. Two different types of functionalized graphene sheets (FGSs) were synthesized by using GO. Hexamethylamine (HDA) substituted vertically to the graphene sheet (Ver-HDA-GS) was synthesized from HDA and epoxy group in GSs. Whereas, horizontally substituted hexadecanol (HDO) to the GS(Hor-HDO-GS) was synthesized from HDO and alcohol groups via reduced GO (RGO), respectively. The structures of the GO, RGO, Ver-HDA-GS, and Hor-HDO-GS were identified by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). In addition, we examined the thermal stability and morphology. Atomic force microscope (AFM) disclosed that Ver-HDA-GS consisted of one- or two-layer graphene regions. However, the Ver-HDA-GS layers showed average thickness of 1.76 nm. The thermal stabilities of the FGSs were better than those of the GO and RGO. The Ver- HDA-GS was well dispersed in common solvents such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), toluene, chloroform, and decalin.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.488.1-488.1
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• 2014

As the society demands the high performance energy storage devices, development of efficient and renewable energy storage materials has been a topic of interest. Here, we report pseudocapacitive behaviors of biopolymer (lignin) that was confined onto reduced graphene oxides (RGOs) for a renewable energy storage system. The strong surface confinement of quinone groups onto the electroconductive RGOs created the renewable hybrid electrodes for supercapacitors (SCs) with fast and reversible redox charge transfer. As a result, the pseudocapacitors fabricated with the hybrid electrodes of lignin and RGO presented the outstanding electrochemical performances of remarkable rate and cyclic performances:~4% capacitance drop after 3000 cycles and a maximum capacitance of 432 F g-1.

• Carbon letters
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.38-44
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• 2014

This paper reports the effect of adding reduced graphene oxide (RGO) as a conductive material to the composition of an electrode for capacitive deionization (CDI), a process to remove salt from water using ionic adsorption and desorption driven by external applied voltage. RGO can be synthesized in an inexpensive way by the reduction and exfoliation of GO, and removing the oxygen-containing groups and recovering a conjugated structure. GO powder can be obtained from the modification of Hummers method and reduced into RGO using a thermal method. The physical and electrochemical characteristics of RGO material were evaluated and its desalination performance was tested with a CDI unit cell with a potentiostat and conductivity meter, by varying the applied voltage and feed rate of the salt solution. The performance of RGO was compared to graphite as a conductive material in a CDI electrode. The result showed RGO can increase the capacitance, reduce the equivalent series resistance, and improve the electrosorption capacity of CDI electrode.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.222.1-222.1
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• 2015

Recently, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have attracted great attention due to various properties including cost-effectiveness of synthesis, low toxicity, and high photostability. Nevertheless, the origins of photoluminescence (PL) from GQDs are unclear because of extrinsic states of the impurities, disorder structures, and oxygen-functional groups. Therefore, to utilize GQDs in various applications, their optical properties generated from the extrinsic states should be understood. In this work, we have focused on the effect of oxygen-functional groups in PL of the GQDs. The GQDs with nanoscale and single layer are synthesized by employing graphite nanoparticles (GNPs) with 4 nm. The series of GQDs with different amount of oxygen-functional groups were prepared by the chain of chemical oxidation and reduction process. The fabrication of a series of graphene oxide QDs (GOQDs) with different amounts of oxygen-contents is first reported by a direct oxidation route of GNPs. In addition, for preparing a series of reduced GOQDs (rGOQDs), we employed the conventional chemical reduction to GOQDs solution and controlled the amount of reduction agents. The GOQDs and rGOQDs showed irreversible PL properties even though both routes have similar amount of oxyen-functional groups. In the case of a series of GOQDs, the PL spectrum was clearly redshifted into blue and green-yellowish color. On the other hand, the PL spectrum of rGOQDs did not change significantly. By various optical measurement such as the PL excitation, UV-vis absorbance, and time-resolved PL, we could verify that their PL mechanisms of GOQDs and rGOQDs are closely associated with different atomic structures formed by chemical oxidation and reduction. Our study provides an important insights for understanding the optical properties of GQDs affected by oxygen-functional groups. [1]

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.581-585
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• 2014

We conducted investigation on the hybridization of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT : PSS) with graphene derivative (G-PSS), which has been prepared by wrapping reduced graphene oxide (RGO) with PSS. In situ polymerization of PEDOT/PSS in the presence of G-PSS afforded the PEDOT/PSS and graphene hybrid (GP). The analysis of XPS, IR and Raman spectroscopies for GP showed that PEDOT/PSS was successfully synthesized and hybridized with graphene. Compared to the G-PSS, GP showed an enhanced electrical conductivity of $4.46{\times}10^2S/m$ with a good wter-dispersity.

• Carbon letters
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• v.19
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• pp.40-46
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• 2016

Nitrogen-atom doped graphene oxide was considered to prevent the dissolution of polysulfide and to guarantee the enhanced redox reaction of sulfur for good cycle performance of lithium sulfur cells. In this study, we used urea as a nitrogen source due to its low cost and easy preparation. To find the optimum urea content, we tested three different ratios of urea to graphene oxide. The morphology of the composites was examined by field emission scanning electron microscope. Functional groups and bonding characterization were measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Electrochemical properties were characterized by cyclic voltammetry in an organic electrolyte solution. Compared with thermally reduced graphene/sulfur (S) composite, nitrogen-doped graphene/S composites showed higher electroactivity and more stable capacity retention.

• Carbon letters
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• v.25
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• pp.14-24
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• 2018

Electrochemical properties and performance of composites performed by incorporating metal oxide or metal hydroxide on carbon materials based on graphene and carbon nanotube (CNT) were analyzed. From the surface analysis by field emission scanning electron microscopy and field emission transmission electron microscopy, it was confirmed that graphene, CNT and metal materials are well dispersed in the ternary composites. In addition, structural and elemental analyses of the composite were conducted. The electrochemical characteristics of the ternary composites were analyzed by cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge tests, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in 6 M KOH, or $1M\;Na_2SO_4$ electrolyte solution. The highest specific capacitance was $1622F\;g^{-1}$ obtained for NiCo-containing graphene with NiCo ratio of 2 to 1 (GNiCo 2:1) and the GNS/single-walled carbon $nanotubes/Ni(OH)_2$ (20 wt%) composite had the maximum specific capacitance of $1149F\;g^{-1}$. The specific capacitance and rate-capability of the $CNT/MnO_2/reduced$ graphene oxide (RGO) composites were improved as compared to the $MnO_2/RGO$ composites without CNTs. The $MnO_2/RGO$ composite containing 20 wt% CNT with reference to RGO exhibited the best specific capacitance of $208.9F\;g^{-1}$ at a current density of $0.5A\;g^{-1}$ and 77.2% capacitance retention at a current density of $10A\;g^{-1}$.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.484-490
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• 2014

Reduced graphene oxide (RGO) was fabricated using gelatin as a reductant, and it could be stably dispersed in gelatin solution without aggregation. A series of RGO/gelatin composite films with various RGO contents were prepared by a solution-casting method. The structure and thermal properties of the RGO/gelatin composite films were characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The addition of RGO enhances the degree of crosslinking of gelatin films and decreases the swelling ability of the gelatin films in water, indicating that RGO/gelatin composite films have a better wet stability than gelatin films. The glass transition temperature ($T_g$) of gelatin films is also increased with the incorporation of RGO. The presence of RGO slightly increases the degradation temperature of gelatin films due to the very low content of RGO in the composite films. Since gelatin is a natural and nontoxic biomacromolecule, the RGO/gelatin composite films are expected to have potential applications in the biomedical field.

• Carbon letters
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.230-235
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• 2012

In this study, reduced graphene oxide/polyimide (r-GO/PI) composite films, which showed significant enhancement in their electrical conductivity, were successfully fabricated. GO was prepared from graphite using a modified Hummers method. The GO was used as a nanofiller material for the preparation of r-GO/PI composites by in-situ polymerization. An addition of 20 wt% of GO led to a significant decrease in the volume resistivity of composite films by less than nine orders of magnitude compared to that of pure PI films due to the electrical percolation networks of reduced GO created during imidization within the films. A tensile test indicated that the Young's modulus of the r-GO/PI composite film containing 20 wt% GO increased drastically from 2.3 GPa to 4.4 GPa, which was an improvement of approximately 84% compared to that of pure PI film. In addition, the corresponding tensile strength was found to have decreased only by 12%, from 113 MPa to 99 MPa.