Non-clustering of sp 3 fluorine adatoms on pristine graphene surface

Abstract

Fluorination can change graphene’s properties, and which is theoretically relative to fluorination pattern of sp 3 fluorine adatoms on graphene surface. The common view for the pattern is that it can easily form as a large cluster for the low migration barrier of fluorine adatoms on pristine graphene surface. Here, we report that sp 3 fluorine adatoms are well-dispersed rather than clustered due to that the intensity ratio of 1.8 for C–CF/CF peaks (R) of fluorinated graphene is much higher than R ≈ 0 for clustered pattern. The low magnetic inducing efficiency of 1 µ B/1000F adatoms indicates that the ‘nonmagnetic’ fluorine pairs rather than ‘magnetic’ fluorine ‘points’ dominate the well-dispersed sp 3 pattern. Our findings introduce a new insight into the fluorination structure properties of fluorinated and other sp 3 functionalized such as hydrogenated, chlorinated, or hydroxylated graphene and other carbon materials.