There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

There is intense interest in graphene in fields such as physics, chemistry, and materials science, among others. Interest in graphene's exceptional physical properties, chemical tunability, and potential for applications has generated thousands of publications and an accelerating pace of research, making review of such research timely. Here is an overview of the synthesis, properties, and applications of graphene and related materials (primarily, graphite oxide and its colloidal suspensions and materials made from them), from a materials science perspective.

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Graphene and Graphene Oxide: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications

Approaches, Derivatives and Applications Vasilios Georgakilas,† Michal Otyepka,‡ Athanasios B. Bourlinos,‡ Vimlesh Chandra, Namdong Kim, K. Christian Kemp, Pavel Hobza,‡,§,⊥ Radek Zboril,*,‡ and Kwang S. Kim* †Institute of Materials Science, NCSR “Demokritos”, Ag. Paraskevi Attikis, 15310 Athens, Greece ‡Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials, Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Palacky University Olomouc, 17. listopadu 12, 771 46 Olomouc, Czech Republic Center for Superfunctional Materials, Department of Chemistry, Pohang University of Science and Technology, San 31, Hyojadong, Namgu, Pohang 790-784, Korea Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., Flemingovo naḿ. 2, 166 10 Prague 6, Czech Republic

Functionalization of Graphene: Covalent and Non-Covalent Approaches, Derivatives and Applications

Graphene has attracted tremendous research interest in recent years, owing to its exceptional properties. The scaled-up and reliable production of graphene derivatives, such as graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO), offers a wide range of possibilities to synthesize graphene-based functional materials for various applications. This critical review presents and discusses the current development of graphene-based composites. After introduction of the synthesis methods for graphene and its derivatives as well as their properties, we focus on the description of various methods to synthesize graphene-based composites, especially those with functional polymers and inorganic nanostructures. Particular emphasis is placed on strategies for the optimization of composite properties. Lastly, the advantages of graphene-based composites in applications such as the Li-ion batteries, supercapacitors, fuel cells, photovoltaic devices, photocatalysis, as well as Raman enhancement are described (279 references).

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Graphene-based composites

Graphene based materials: Past, present and future

Graphene, as the fundamental 2D carbon structure with exceptionally high crystal and electronic quality, has emerged as a rapidly rising star in the field of material science. Its sudden discovery in 2004 led to an explosion of interest in the study of graphene with respect to its unique physical, chemical, and mechanical properties, opening up a new research area for materials science and condensed-matter physics, and aiming for wide-ranging and diversified technological applications. In this critical review, we will describe recent advances in the development of graphene-based materials from the standpoint of electrochemistry. To begin with, electron transfer properties of graphene will be discussed, involving its unusual electronic structure, extraordinary electronic properties and fascinating electron transport. The next major section deals with the exciting progress related to graphene-based materials in electrochemistry since 2004, including electrochemical sensing, electrochemiluminescence, electrocatalysis, electrochemical energy conversion and FET devices. Finally, prospects and further developments in this exciting field of graphene-based materials are also suggested (224 references).

Graphene-based materials in electrochemistry

This paper describes the preparation, characterization, and electrochemical properties of reduced graphene sheet films (rGSFs), investigating especially their electrochemical behavior for several redox systems and electrocatalytic properties towards oxygen and some small molecules. The reduced graphene sheets (rGSs) are produced in high yield by a soft chemistry route involving graphite oxidation, ultrasonic exfoliation, and chemical reduction. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy clearly demonstrate that graphene was successfully synthesized and modified at the surface of a glassy carbon electrode. Several redox species, such as Ru(NH3)63+/2+, Fe(CN)63−/4−, Fe3+/2+ and dopamine, are used to probe the electrochemical properties of these graphene films by using the cyclic voltammetry method. The rGSFs demonstrate fast electron-transfer (ET) kinetics and possess excellent electrocatalytic activity toward oxygen reduction and certain biomolecules. In our opinion, this microstructural and electrochemical information can serve as an important benchmark for graphene-based electrode performances.

Preparation, Structure, and Electrochemical Properties of Reduced Graphene Sheet Films

Application of graphene-modified electrode for selective detection of dopamine

Combining nanomaterials and biomolecule recognition units is promising in developing novel clinic diagnostic and protein analysis techniques. In this work, a highly sensitive and specific fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) aptasensor for thrombin detection is developed based on the dye labeled aptamer assembled graphene. Due to the noncovalent assembly between aptamer and graphene, fluorescence quenching of the dye takes place because of FRET. The addition of thrombin leads to the fluorescence recovery due to the formation of quadruplex−thrombin complexes which have weak affinity to graphene and keep the dyes away from graphene surface. Because of the high fluorescence quenching efficiency, unique structure, and electronic properties of graphene, the graphene aptasensor exhibits extraordinarily high sensitivity and excellent specificity in both buffer and blood serum. A detection limit as low as 31.3 pM is obtained based on the graphene FRET aptasensor, which is two orders magnitude lower than ...

Longhua Tang

Papers

Graphene-based materials in electrochemistry

Preparation, Structure, and Electrochemical Properties of Reduced Graphene Sheet Films

Application of graphene-modified electrode for selective detection of dopamine

Graphene Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer Aptasensor for the Thrombin Detection

Preparation and electrochemical performance for methanol oxidation of pt/graphene nanocomposites