Issue 22, 2018

Extraordinary water adsorption characteristics of graphene oxide

Abstract

The laminated structure of graphene oxide (GO) confers unique interactions with water molecules which may be utilised in a range of applications that require materials with tuneable hygroscopic properties. The precise role of the expandable interlayer spacing and functional groups in GO laminates has not completely been understood to date. Herein, we report the experimental and theoretical investigations on the adsorption and desorption behaviour of water in GO laminates as a function of relative pressure. We observed that GO imparts high water uptake capacity of up to 0.58 gram of water per gram of GO (g gāˆ’1), which is significantly higher than silica gel as a conventional desiccant material. More interestingly, the adsorption and desorption kinetics of GO is five times higher than silica gel. The observed extraordinary adsorption/desorption rate can be attributed to the high capillary pressure in GO laminates as well as micro meter sized tunnel-like wrinkles located at the surface.

Graphical abstract: Extraordinary water adsorption characteristics of graphene oxide

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
02 Feb 2018
Accepted
16 May 2018
First published
16 May 2018
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 5106-5111

Extraordinary water adsorption characteristics of graphene oxide

B. Lian, S. De Luca, Y. You, S. Alwarappan, M. Yoshimura, V. Sahajwalla, S. C. Smith, G. Leslie and R. K. Joshi, Chem. Sci., 2018, 9, 5106 DOI: 10.1039/C8SC00545A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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