Chemical functionalization of graphene via aryne cycloaddition: a theoretical study

Chemical functionalization of graphene provides a promising route to improve its solubility in water and organic solvents as well as modify its electronic properties, thus significantly expanding its potential applications. In this article, by using density functional theory (DFT) methods, we have studied the effects of the chemical functionalization of graphenes via aryne cycloaddition on its properties. We found that the adsorption of an isolated aryne group on the graphene sheet is very weak with the adsorption energy of -0.204 eV, even though two new single C-C interactions are formed between the aryne group and the graphene. However, the interaction of graphene with the aryne group can be greatly strengthened by (i) substituting the H-atoms in aryne group with F-, Cl-, -NO(2) (electron-withdrawing capability), or CH(3)-group (electron-donating capability), and (ii) increasing the coverage of the adsorbed aryne groups on the graphene sheet. As expected, the strongest bonding is found on the graphene edges, in which the adsorbed aryne groups prefer to be far away from each other. Interestingly, chemical functionalization with aryne groups leads to an opening of the band gap of graphene, which is dependent on the coverage of the adsorbed aryne groups. The present work provides an insight into the modifications of graphene with aryne groups in experiment.