Eur. Phys. J. D (2016) 70: 31
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2016-60499-8

Regular Article

Functionalization of carbon nanowalls by plasma jet in liquid treatment

¹ National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 077125 Bucharest-Magurele, Romania
² Advanced Polymer Materials Group, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 010737 Bucharest, Romania
³ University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, 3Nano-SAE Research Centre, 077125 Bucharest-Magurele, Romania
⁴ National Institute for Materials Physics, 077125 Bucharest-Magurele, Romania

^a e-mail: s_vizi@infim.ro

Received: 3 September 2015
Received in final form: 12 November 2015
Published online: 9 February 2016

Abstract

Submerged in liquid plasma treatment is a new approach for nanomaterials functionalization. This paper presents a surfactant free method for functionalization of graphene nano-platelets derived from carbon nanowalls through plasma jet treatment of their water suspensions. The untreated and under-liquid plasma treated suspensions were characterized in terms of their UV-Vis absorption, zeta-size, zeta-potential, pH, and conductivity. Investigation of dried material revealed that the graphene nano-sheets morphology and structure have been preserved, showing also new oxygen functional groups bonded to the carbon network after in liquid plasma treatment. The results demonstrate the efficiency of this technique in changing the properties of carbon nanowalls suspensions and also in getting functionalized multilayered graphene sheets.