Abstract
Graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) has gained much attention in the field of gas sensing. However to realize its full potential in this regard, it is important to understand the influence of moisture on GO and RGO. Therefore, in situ and real time monitoring of adsorption and desorption of water molecules on GO and RGO coatings were investigated using quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). Water adsorption were studied under constant relative humidity (RH) levels over a period of time. For both GO and RGO the results show that the adsorption is followed by an equilibrium state. It is shown that for GO the initial rate of water adsorption, the amount of water at the equilibrium and the time to reach the equlibrium vary with RH, where as for RGO no such variations were observed. These observations indicate that at low RH adsorption is primarily throught surface and the edges where as at high RHs water penetrate into the intersitial layers of GO. Thus the latter becoming the rate limiting step for water adsorption at high RH. The results also elucidate on the contribution of surface oxygen functional groups towards the water adsorption rate and the amount adsorbed. The above results provde important information that can be used during GO-based sensor design and calibration.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acik, M., Lee, G., Mattevi, C., Pirkle, A., Wallace, R.M., Chhowalla, M., Cho, K., Chabal, Y.: The role of oxygen during thermal reduction of graphene oxide studied by infrared absorption spectroscopy. J. Phys. Chem. C 115, 19761–19781 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1021/jp2052618
Balashov, S.M., Balachova, O.V., Filho, A.P., Bazetto, M.C.Q., de Almeida, M.G.: Surface acoustic wave humidity sensors based on graphene oxide thin films deposited with the surface acoustic wave atomizer. ECS Trans. 49, 445–450 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1149/04901.0445ecst
Barroso-Bujans, F., Cerveny, S., Alegría, A., Colmenero, J.: Sorption and desorption behavior of water and organic solvents from graphite oxide. Carbon 48, 3277–3286 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2010.05.023
Buchsteiner, A., Lerf, A., Pieper, J.: Water dynamics in graphite oxide investigated with neutron scattering. J. Phys. Chem. B 110, 22328–22338 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1021/jp0641132
Cai, W., Piner, R.D., Stadermann, F.J., Park, S., Shaibat, M.A., Ishii, Y., Yang, D., Velamakanni, A., An, S.J., Stoller, M., An, J., Chen, D., Ruoff, R.S.: Synthesis and solid-state NMR structural characterization of Clabeled graphite oxide. Science 321, 1815–1818 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1162369
De Luca, A., Santra, S., Ghosh, R., Ali, S.Z., Gardner, J.W., Guha, P.K., Udrea, F.: Temperature-modulated graphene oxide resistive humidity sensor for indoor air quality monitoring. Nanoscale 8, 4565–4572 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1039/C5NR08598E
Eigler, S., Dimiev, A.M.: 03_P1C3_Characterization Techniques. In: Eigler, S., Dimiev, A.M. (eds.) Graphene oxide fundamentals and applications, pp. 86–120. Wiley, Chichester (2017)
Gao, W., Majumder, M., Alemany, L.B., Narayanan, T.N., Ibarra, M.A., Pradhan, B.K., Ajayan, P.M.: Engineered graphite oxide materials for application in water purification. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 3, 1821–1826 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1021/am200300u
Guo, L., Jiang, H.B., Shao, R.Q., Zhang, Y.L., Xie, S.Y., Wang, J.N., Li, X.Bin, Jiang, F., Chen, Q.D., Zhang, T., Sun, H.B.: Two-beam-laser interference mediated reduction, patterning and nanostructuring of graphene oxide for the production of a flexible humidity sensing device. Carbon 50, 1667–1673 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2011.12.011
Huang, Q., Zeng, D., Tian, S., Xie, C.: Synthesis of defect graphene and its application for room temperature humidity sensing. Mater. Lett. 83, 76–79 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2012.05.074
Jayasundara, D.R., Cullen, R.J., Colavita, P.E.: In situ and real time characterization of spontaneous grafting of aryldiazonium salts at carbon surfaces. Chem. Mater. 25, 1144–1152 (2013a). https://doi.org/10.1021/cm4007537
Jayasundara, D.R., Cullen, R.J., Soldi, L., Colavita, P.E.: In situ studies of the adsorption kinetics of 4-nitrobenzenediazonium salt on gold. Langmuir 27, 13029–13036 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1021/la202862p
Jayasundara, D.R., Duff, T., Angione, M.D., Bourke, J., Murphy, D.M., Scanlan, E.M., Colavita, P.E.: Carbohydrate coatings via aryldiazonium chemistry for surface biomimicry. Chem. Mater. 25, 4122–4128 (2013b). https://doi.org/10.1021/cm4027896
Jeong, H.K., Jin, M.H., So, K.P., Lim, S.C., Lee, Y.H.: Tailoring the characteristics of graphite oxides by different oxidation times. J. Phys. D 42, 065418 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3727/42/6/065418
Krishnamoorthy, K., Veerapandian, M., Yun, K., Kim, S.J.: The chemical and structural analysis of graphene oxide with different degrees of oxidation. Carbon 53, 38–49 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2012.10.013
Kumarasinghe, A.R., Samaranayake, L., Bondino, F., Magnano, E., Kottegoda, N., Carlino, E., Ratnayake, U.N., De Alwis, A.A.P., Karunaratne, V., Amaratunga, G.A.J.: Self-assembled multilayer graphene oxide membrane and carbon nanotubes synthesized using a rare form of natural graphite. J. Phys. Chem. C 117, 9507–9519 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1021/jp402428j
Lerf, A., Buchsteiner, A., Pieper, J., Schöttl, S., Dekany, I., Szabo, T., Boehm, H.P.: Hydration behavior and dynamics of water molecules in graphite oxide. J. Phys. Chem. Solids 67, 1106–1110 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpcs.2006.01.031
Li, N., Chen, X., Chen, X., Ding, X., Zhao, X.: Ultrahigh humidity sensitivity of graphene oxide combined with Ag nanoparticles. RSC Adv. 7, 45988–45996 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1039/C7RA06959F
Li, Y., Deng, C., Yang, M.: Facilely prepared composites of polyelectrolytes and graphene as the sensing materials for the detection of very low humidity. Sens Actuators B 194, 51–58 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2013.12.080
Lian, B., De Luca, S., You, Y., Alwarappan, S., Yoshimura, M., Sahajwalla, V., Smith, S.C., Leslie, G., Joshi, R.K.: Extraordinary water adsorption characteristics of graphene oxide. Chem. Sci. 9, 5106–5111 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1039/C8SC00545A
Liu, R., Gong, T., Zhang, K., Lee, C.: Graphene oxide papers with high water adsorption capacity for air dehumidification. Sci. Rep. 7, 1–9 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-09777-y
Lu, G., Ocola, L.E., Chen, J.: Gas detection using low-temperature reduced graphene oxide sheets. Appl. Phys. Lett. 94(083111), 1–3 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3086896
Mermoux, M., Chabre, Y., Rousseau, A.: FTIR and 13C NMR study of graphite oxide. Carbon 29, 469–474 (1991)
Marcano, D.C.D., Kosynkin, D.D.V., Berlin, J.M., Sinitskii, A., Sun, Z.Z., Slesarev, A., Alemany, L.B., Lu, W., Tour, J.M.: Improved synthesis of graphene oxide. ACS Nano 4, 4806–4814 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1021/nn1006368
Medhekar, N.V., Ramasubramaniam, A., Ruoff, R.S., Shenoy, V.B.: Hydrogen bond networks in graphene oxide composite paper: structure and mechanical properties. ACS Nano 4, 2300–2306 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1021/nn901934u
Naik, G., Krishnaswamy, S.: Room-temperature humidity sensing using graphene oxide thin films. Graphene 5, 1–13 (2016). https://doi.org/10.4236/graphene.2016.51001
Perera, D., Abeywickrama, A., Zen, F., Colavita, P.E., Jayasundara, D.R.: Evolution of oxygen functionalities in graphene oxide and its impact on structure and exfoliation: an oxidation time based study. Mater. Chem. Phys. 220, 417–425 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2018.08.072
Popov, V.I., Nikolaev, D.V., Timofeev, V.B., Smagulova, S.A., Antonova, I.V.: Graphene Based Humidity Sensors: The Origin of Resistance Change. Nanotechnology 28, 355501 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/aa7b6e
Rezania, B., Severin, N., Talyzin, A.V., Rabe, J.P.: Hydration of bilayered graphene oxide. Nano Lett. 14, 3993–3998 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1021/nl5013689
Saleem, H., Haneef, M., Abbasi, H.Y.: Synthesis route of reduced graphene oxide via thermal reduction of chemically exfoliated graphene oxide. Mater. Chem. Phys. 204, 1–7 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2017.10.020
Stankovich, S., Dikin, D.A., Piner, R.D., Kohlhaas, K.A., Kleinhammes, A., Jia, Y., Wu, Y., Nguyen, S.B.T., Ruoff, R.S.: Synthesis of graphene-based nanosheets via chemical reduction of exfoliated graphite oxide. Carbon 45, 1558–1565 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2007.02.034
Stobinski, L., Lesiak, B., Malolepszy, A., Mazurkiewicz, M., Mierzwa, B.: Graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide studied by the XRD, TEM and electron spectroscopy methods. J. Electron Spectrosc. Relat. Phenom. 195, 145–154 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elspec.2014.07.003
Su, P.G., Lu, Z.M.: Flexibility and electrical and humidity-sensing properties of diamine-functionalized graphene oxide films. Sens. Actuators B 211, 157–163 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2015.01.089
Tai, H., Zhen, Y., Liu, C., Ye, Z., Xie, G., Du, X., Jiang, Y.: Facile development of high performance QCM humidity sensor based on protonated polyethylenimine-graphene oxide nanocomposite thin film. Sens. Actuators B 230, 501–509 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2016.01.105
Thriumani, R., Zakaria, A., Omar, M.I., Halim, F.A.B.: An initial study on oxidized graphene-coated QCM based gas sensor for cancer related volatile sensing application. Recent Innov. Chem. Eng. 11, 29–39 (2018). https://doi.org/10.2174/2405520411666180219152530
Yang, M., He, J.: Graphene oxide as quartz crystal microbalance sensing layers for detection of formaldehyde. Sens. Actuators B 228, 486–490 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2016.01.046
Yao, Y., Chen, X., Guo, H., Wu, Z.: Graphene oxide thin film coated quartz crystal microbalance for humidity detection. Appl. Surf. Sci. 257, 7778–7782 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2011.04.028
Yao, Y., Chen, X., Guo, H., Wu, Z., Li, X.: Humidity sensing behaviors of graphene oxide-silicon bi-layer flexible structure. Sens. Actuators B 161, 1053–1058 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2011.12.007
Yao, Y., Chen, X., Li, X., Chen, X., Li, N.: Investigation of the stability of QCM humidity sensor using graphene oxide as sensing films. Sens. Actuators B 191, 779–783 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2013.10.076
Yao, Y., Xue, Y.: Influence of the oxygen content on the humidity sensing properties of functionalized graphene films based on bulk acoustic wave humidity sensors. Sens. Actuators B 222, 755–762 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2015.08.121
Yoo, H.Y., Bruckenstein, S.: A novel quartz crystal microbalance gas sensor based on porous film coatings. A high sensitivity porous poly(methylmethacrylate) water vapor sensor. Anal. Chim. Acta. 785, 98–103 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2013.04.052
Yuan, Z., Tai, H., Bao, X., Ye, Z., Liu, C., Jiang, Y.: Enhancement humidity sensing properties of graphene oxide/poly (ethyleneimine) film QCM sensors. In: IEEE Sensors pp. 8–11 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1109/icsens.2015.7370400
Yuan, Z., Tai, H., Ye, Z., Liu, C., Xie, G., Du, X., Jiang, Y.: Novel highly sensitive QCM humidity sensor with low hysteresis based on graphene oxide (GO)/poly(ethyleneimine) layered film. Sens. Actuators B 234, 145–154 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2016.04.070
Zhang, C., Dabbs, D.M., Liu, L.-M., Aksay, I.A., Car, R., Selloni, A.: Combined effects of functional groups, lattice defects, and edges in the infrared spectra of graphene oxide. J. Phys. Chem. C 119, 18167–18176 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b02727
Zhang, D., Tong, J., Xia, B.: Humidity-sensing properties of chemically reduced graphene oxide/polymer nanocomposite film sensor based on layer-by-layer nano self-assembly. Sens. Actuators B 197, 66–72 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2014.02.078
Zhang, Y., Yu, K., Xu, R., Jiang, D., Luo, L., Zhu, Z.: Quartz crystal microbalance coated with carbon nanotube films used as humidity sensor. Sens. Actuators B 120, 142–146 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2004.11.032
Zhihua, Y., Liang, Z., Kaixin, S., Weiwei, H.: Characterization of quartz crystal microbalance sensors coated with graphene films. Procedia Eng. 29, 2448–2452 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2012.01.330
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Research Council Sri Lanka (NRC Grant 15-04) and University of Colombo (University Grant AP/03/02/2016/CG/29 and undergraduate research funding). The authors would also like to acknowledge Mr. G. D. D. S Gamage of University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, for his support on Scanning Electron Microscope. We are also grateful to the Instrument Center of University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka and Techno Solutions (Pvt) Ltd, Sri Lanka, for the instrumentation facilities.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Perera, V.V., Fernando, N.L., Nissanka, B. et al. In situ real time monitoring of hygroscopic properties of graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide. Adsorption 25, 1543–1552 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10450-019-00131-4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10450-019-00131-4