Investigations of novel properties of 2D and other inorganic nanostructures

Abstract

Characterization of material surfaces is of great importance in understanding the reactivity and properties of materials. In many recent studies, surface characterization of materials is generally limited to reporting the surface area and qualitative identification of the functional groups present on the surface, the latter being enabled by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) or Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). It is however desirable to have a quantitative estimation of the surface functional groups. This is relevant since the presence of functional groups indeed affects the properties of the materials when used in various applications. A typical example would be the use of carbon materials in supercapacitors and energy devices. Graphene and related two-dimensional materials present a variety of oxygen containing functional groups on their surfaces.