Hummers Graphite Oxide Alcohol Swelling — Umeå University, 2013

You, S., Sundqvist, B., & Talyzin, A. (2013). Enormous lattice expansion of hummers graphite oxide in alcohols at low temperatures. *Acs Nano*. https://doi.org/10.1021/nn3051105

Acs Nano · 2013

Umeå University used Hummers graphite oxide from ACS Material to reveal lattice expansion to 20.6 Å in ethanol at 140 K via synchrotron XRD.

About this research

Researchers at Umeå University (Department of Physics) used Hummers graphite oxide purchased from ACS Material, USA, to demonstrate an enormous low-temperature lattice expansion in liquid alcohols, with the H-GO interlayer distance growing to 19.4 Å in methanol and 20.6 Å in ethanol at 140 K. The work, published in ACS Nano (2013), shows that this expansion corresponds to the insertion of at least two additional solvent monolayers and is consistent with osmotic (rather than crystalline) swelling.

Graphite oxide is a hydrophilic, layered carbon material that solvates readily in polar liquids, and its swelling behavior governs applications ranging from graphene oxide membranes and supercapacitor electrodes to graphene oxide framework (GOF) sorbents. Understanding how the interlayer gallery responds to temperature and solvent type is essential for designing intercalation routes that incorporate larger organic linkers or guest molecules into the GO structure.

The Hummers graphite oxide from ACS Material was the central sample of the study. Independent characterization in the authors' earlier work gave a C/O ratio of 2.47 by XPS, with no detectable alkali metal or Mn contamination and only minor N (1.7 at.%) and S (0.7 at.%) residues, confirming a clean, well-defined starting material. Powder samples were loaded in glass capillaries with excess methanol or ethanol and cooled from room temperature to ~150 K in 3–10 K steps using an Oxford CryoStream, while synchrotron X-ray diffraction patterns were collected at the MAX-Lab III I711 beamline (λ = 1.0090 Å, calibrated with LaB6).

In contrast to Brodie graphite oxide, which shows a single-step crystalline swelling transition, the Hummers GO from ACS Material exhibited a gradual, continuous expansion on cooling, reaching the 19.4 Å (methanol) and 20.6 Å (ethanol) values quoted above. This osmotic-type swelling provides far larger interlayer galleries than are accessible at room temperature, opening a practical solution-based route to intercalating bigger molecular linkers for GOF synthesis and composite fabrication. The reproducibility of the effect underscores the suitability of ACS Material's Hummers-method graphite oxide as a starting material for GO intercalation chemistry.

How ACS Material products were used

• Hummers Graphite Oxide (Graphite Oxide) (Graphene Series)  — “Commercial GO produced by Hummers method was purchased from ACS Material, USA.”

Product Performance in this Study

The Hummers-method graphite oxide from ACS Material served as the central sample, with characterization (C/O ratio 2.47 by XPS, no alkali/Mn contamination) confirming a clean, well-defined material suitable for synchrotron XRD swelling studies in alcohols.

Related product categories

• Graphene Series