Altering and investigating the surfactant properties of graphene oxide

Graphene oxide (GO) is a two-dimensional material with a hydrophobic carbon lattice functionalized with hydrophilic oxygen groups on the edges and basal plane. Its hydrophobic/hydrophilic nature allows it to behave as a surfactant, stabilizing emulsions of oil in water. In the investigation described here, we study GO's emulsifying ability by using it to template the polymerization of polystyrene while tuning the hydrophobicity and degree of oxidation of the GO sheets. SEM, TGA, optical microscopy, acoustic spectroscopy, and digital image analysis are used to characterize the system. The size of the GO templated PS spheres is found to be a function of the amount of GO in the system, with too little GO resulting in PS spheres with no GO shell. Increasing the hydrophobicity of the sheets is shown to lead to the formation of inverse emulsions, while increasing the graphitic character of the GO results in distorted styrene droplets as the GO sheets become more planar and less able to conform to a smoothly curving interface.