title: Tuning the Surface Properties of Graphene Oxide by Surface-Initiated Polymerization of Epoxides: An Efficient Method for Enhancing Gas Separation.
abstract: Here, we describe an in situ approach for growing polyepoxides from the surfaces of graphene oxide (GO) using a surface-initiated polymerization reaction. The polymerization methodology is facile and general as a broad range of epoxides carrying various functional groups have been successfully polymerized by simply adding GO powders in the epoxide monomers. The resultant polyepoxide grafted GO are found to show enhanced dispersibility in various common solvents and to exhibit increased d-spacing between the basal planes. In particular, grafting poly(2,3-epoxy-1-propanol) (PEP) to GO results in a composite (i.e., GO-g-PEP) that is dispersible in water and miscible with polyether block amide, i.e., Pebax MH 1657. Preliminary studies have indicated the membranes prepared using Pebax/GO-g-PEP composites exhibit enhanced CO2permeabilities and selectivities in comparison to H2, O2, or N2. The excellent performance in gas separation is attributed to the layered structure of the GO-g-PEP sheets with enlarged d-spacing and the functional groups present on the PEP chains grafted to the surfaces of GO sheets.
authors.affiliation: Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 29 Zhongguancun East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 29 Zhongguancun East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Pan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 29 Zhongguancun East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Linli
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 2 Zhongguancun North First Street, Haidian District, Beijing, 100190, China.
authors.forename: Zhangyan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Linhong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 29 Zhongguancun East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Jinhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 2 Zhongguancun North First Street, Haidian District, Beijing, 100190, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 29 Zhongguancun East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials (CMCM), Institute for Basic Science (IBS) , Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea.|Department of Chemistry and Department of Energy Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) , Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Christopher W
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0520-1982
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Bielawski
authors.affiliation: Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 29 Zhongguancun East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Jianxin
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0428-4621
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Geng
keywords: gas separation; graphene oxide; graphene oxide-initiated polymerization; membranes; polyepoxides