On the Addition of Aryl Radicals to Graphene: The Importance of Nonbonded Interactions

Dispersion-corrected density functional theory is utilized to study the addition of aryl radicals to perfect and defective graphene. Although the perfect sheet shows a low reactivity against aryl diazonium salts, the agglomeration of these groups and the addition onto defect sites improves the feasibility of the reaction by increasing binding energies per aryl group up to 27 kcalmol(-1). It is found that if a single phenyl radical interacts with graphene, the covalent and noncovalent additions have similar binding energies, but in the particular case of the nitrophenyl group, the adsorption is stronger than the chemisorption. The single vacancy shows the largest reactivity, increasing the binding energy per aryl group by about 80 kcalmol(-1). The zigzag edge ranks second, enhancing the reactivity 5.4 times with respect to the perfect sheet. The less reactive defect site is the Stone-Wales type, but even in this case the addition of an isolated aryl radical is exergonic. The arylation process is favored if the groups are attached nearby and on different sublattices. This is particularly true for the ortho and para positions. However, the enhancement of the binding energies decreases quickly if the distance between the two aryl radicals is increased, thereby making the addition on the perfect sheet difficult. A bandgap of 1-2 eV can be opened on functionalization of the graphene sheets with aryl radicals, but for certain configurations the sheet can maintain its semimetallic character even if there is one aryl radical per eight carbon atoms. At the highest level of functionalization achieved, that is, one aryl group per five carbon atoms, the bandgap is 1.9 eV. Regarding the effect of using aryl groups with different substituents, it is found that they all induce the same bandgap and thus the presence of NO2, H, or Br is not relevant for the alteration of the electronic properties. Finally, it is observed that the presence of tetrafluoroborate can induce metallic character in graphene.