Preparation of polyoxometalate/graphene nanocomposites with covalent interaction

polyoxometalate (POM) anions represent a large class of inorganic compounds that, because of their topological and electronic versatilities, have found applications in fields as diverse ascatalysis, biology, medicine, and materials science.(1) The POMs exhibit the unique structure and redox properties, which could serve as ideal candidates for electrochemical applications.(2) Due to the fact that the POM salts have negligible conductivity, they are unsuitable for direct use inelectroctalysis, storage and conversion of energy.(3) An approach for solving these problems is toattach POMs nanostructures directly on carbon based conductive materials through covalent or non-covalent interactions.(4) However, preparation of nanocomposites consisting ofnanopolyoxometalate and nanocarbon based substrates such as graphite, carbon nanotube, and graphene with direct covalent bonding between its components is still a challenge in this research field. In this work, we report the use of amine-modified graphenes for the synthesis of covalentattachment and highly dispersed nanopolyoxometalates on graphene nanosheets. The nanocomposites were characterized by several techniques including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

Keywords:

Polyoxometalate , graphene , covalent interaction , nanocomposite