Functional Polymer Brushes on Hydrogenated Graphene

We demonstrate that the degree of hydrogenation of graphene directly controls the grafting density and thus, the layer thickness of grafted polymer brushes synthesized via self-initiated photografting and photopolymerization. Among the tested monomers, only styrene derivatives could be directly grafted onto copper-supported graphene. Therefore, copolymerization of styrene and acrylates, as well as consecutive grafting of both monomer types, was employed to realize functional polymer brushes of poly(styrene-co-acrylate) copolymers. The direct grafting of polymers on graphene results in polymer carpets that are suitable for a wide variety of applications.