New Insights into the Diels-Alder Reaction of Graphene Oxide

Graphene oxide is regarded as a major precursor for graphene-based materials. The development of graphene oxide based derivatives with new functionalities requires a thorough understanding of its chemical reactivity, especially for canonical synthetic methods such as the Diels-Alder cycloaddition. The Diels-Alder reaction has been successfully extended with graphene oxide as a source of diene by using maleic anhydride as a dienophile, thereby outlining the presence of the cis diene present in the graphene oxide framework. This reaction provides fundamental information for understanding the exact structure and chemical nature of graphene oxide. On the basis of high-resolution C-13-SS NMR spectra, we show evidence for the formation of new sp(3) carbon centers covalently bonded to graphene oxide following hydrolysis of the reaction product. DFT calculations are also used to show that the presence of a cis dihydroxyl and C vacancy on the surface of graphene oxide are promoting the reaction with significant negative reaction enthalpies.