The Covalently Organic Functionalization of Graphene: Methodologies and Protocols

Owning to its large surface area and atomic thickness, graphene possesses exceptional mechanical, optical and electrical properties. Up to now, graphene and its composites/hybrids have been widely used in various scientific fields such as drug carriers, electronics, transistors, sensors, conductive materials and so on. Unfortunately, the prospects of more extensive applications of graphene have been impeded by its poor dispersibility, processability and tunability. However, graphene can be chemically modified, and the well-chosen organic molecules with active functional groups would react with graphene to form low-dimensional graphene-organic architectures. The controlled functionalization of organic molecules onto the defective sites of graphene is a very effective route for fabrication of graphene-based composite materials. The aim of this article is to present an overview of the surface functionalization methodologies which are valuable for the selective construction of highly functionalized graphene with controllable properties. The interactions between graphene and organic molecules were discussed in detail. We hope to provide some useful references and enlightened views for scientific research groups.