Pressure-induced insertion of water and polar solvents into graphene oxide

Graphene oxide (GO) is a heavily functionalised form of grapheme that is dispersible in water and other solvents. As water is added to pristine graphene oxide there is formation interlayer water which gradually expands to form a gel-like phase. The insertion of water and other solvents into graphene oxide is also show to vary as a function of pressure. Colossal expansion of the cell volume has been reported with an up to 40% increase in cell volume as water is added. In this proposal we aim to look and the change in the interlayer spacing as water and the aprotic polar solvent DMF are added into GO in order to, firs, observe the pressure-induced expansion as the solvent is intercalated and secondly to understand the structure of the solvent layer. This will be achieved by in situ measurement made on GO with D2O and deuterated DMF using the PEARL instrument.