Optical behaviour of functional groups of graphene oxide

Abstract

Optical properties of graphene oxide (GO) dispersed in aqueous medium with aging and pH variations were investigated along with concurrent changes of oxygen functional groups of GO. Freshly prepared GO exhibit strong excitation wavelength dependent luminescence, which gets gradually nullified with aging due to the drastic reduction in fraction of polar hydroxyl groups. Fourier transform infrared studies indicated that functional groups of GO undergo spontaneous modification with aging in aqueous medium, resulting in suppression of epoxide groups and enriched adsorption of water molecules. When the pH of GO dispersed in aqueous medium was varied, unique transformations of functional groups take place causing major disruption to the sp2 hybridised carbon domains of GO. Concurrent changes in luminescence of GO infer that the broad emission from freshly prepared GO has large contribution from disorder induced localised states due to hydroxyl, epoxide, carboxyl groups and changes in relative fractions of these groups with aging and pH variations of GO dispersions strongly influence the intensity as well as emission wavelength region of GO. Especially emission features of GO are strongly influenced by the presence, fraction and transformations of epoxide and hydroxyl groups of GO.