Insights into the Oxidation Mechanism of sp2-sp3 Hybrid Carbon Materials: Preparation of a Water-Soluble 2D Porous Conductive Network and Detectable Molecule Separation.

A thorough investigation of the oxidation mechanism of sp2-sp3 hybrid carbon materials is helpful for the morphological trimming of graphene. Here, porous graphene (PGN) was obtained via a free radical oxidation process. We further demonstrated the difference between traditional and free radical oxidation processes in sp2-sp3 hybrid carbon materials. The sp3 part of graphene oxide was oxidized first, and well-crystallized sp2 domains were reserved, which is different from the oxidation mechanism in a traditional approach. The obtained PGN shows excellent performance in the design of PGN-based detectable molecule separation or other biomedical applications.