Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 18, 2026
Effect of Bending on the Electrical Characteristics of Flexible Organic Single Crystal-based Field-effect Transistors
Published on: November 7, 2016
Pressure-induced insertion of liquid alcohols into graphite oxide structure
Alexandr V Talyzin1, Bertil Sundqvist, Tamás Szabó
1Department of Physics, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden. Alexandr.talyzin@physics.umu.se
Abstract:
Graphite oxide (GO) immersed in an excess of methanol and ethanol media is found to undergo a phase transformation at about 0.2-0.8 GPa, with an expansion of the unit cell volume by approximately 40%, due to pressure-induced insertion of solvent into interlayer space. The pressure at which the structural expansion occurs does not correlate with the solidification pressure of the alcohol, in contrast to the graphite oxide/water system. The expanded high-pressure phase of GO/ethanol could be quenched back to ambient pressure. Compression of graphite oxide with a 2:1 water/methanol medium revealed a complex anomaly with two steps attributed to insertion of methanol and water at different pressure points.
Related Concept Videos
02:15Preparation of Alcohols via Addition Reactions
The acid-catalyzed addition of water to the double bond of alkenes is a large-scale industrial method used to synthesize low-molecular-weight alcohols. An acidic atmosphere is required to allow the hydrogen in the water molecule to act as an electrophile and attack the double bond in an alkene. The addition of a proton to the double bond creates a carbocation intermediate. The proton preferentially bonds to the less substituted end of the double bond to create a more stable carbocation...
02:00Alcohols from Carbonyl Compounds: Grignard Reaction
Magnesium from the reagent coordinates with carbonyl oxygen, further reducing the carbonyl carbon's electron density. Thus, the carbonyl carbon is a...
02:32Physical Properties of Alcohols and Phenols
Alcohols possess a higher boiling point than aliphatic hydrocarbons of similar...
03:08Hydroboration-Oxidation of Alkenes
02:17Physical Properties of Ethers
An ether molecule has a net dipole moment due to the polarity of C–O bonds. Subsequently, boiling points of ethers are lower than those of alcohols of comparable molecular weight and slightly higher than those of hydrocarbons of comparable molecular weight (Table 1).
Ethers can act as hydrogen bond acceptors, making them more water-soluble than hydrocarbons, but since ethers cannot act as hydrogen bond donors, they are much less soluble in water than alcohols. Ethers are considered...
02:37Oxidation of Alcohols
The process of oxidation in a chemical reaction is observed in any of the three forms: