Facile covalent functionalization of graphene oxide using microwaves: bottom-up development of functional graphitic materials

Graphene oxide (GO) exfoliated sheets were used as two dimensional platforms to covalently tether on their surface thousands of optically active quaterthiophene molecules (T4), using an innovative microwave-assisted silanization reaction. This method allowed to perform GO functionalization in one-step, under mild conditions in a few tens of minutes rather than days. The hybrid GOT4 could be processed in either H2O or apolar organic solvents and deposited as single sheets, microplatelets or macroscopic membranes. Absorption/emission spectroscopy reveals that GOT4 combines limited T4-T4 interactions with strong T4-GO ones. These findings, combined with the ‘user-friendly’ engineering approach presented here, pave the way towards the bottom-up fabrication of new GO-based tailored materials for electronics, sensors and biological applications.