aOne of the main advantages of graphene oxide (GO) over its non-oxidized counterpart is its ability to form stable solutions in water and some organic solvents. At the same time, the nature of GO solutions is not completely understood; the existing data are scarce and controversial. Here, we demonstrate that the solubility of GO, and the stability of the as-formed solutions depend not just on the solute and solvent cohesion parameters, as commonly believed, but mostly on the chemical interactions at the GO/solvent interface. By the DFT and QTAIM calculations, we demonstrate that the solubility of GO is afforded by strong hydrogen bonding established between GO functional groups and solvent molecules.The main functional groups taking part in hydrogen bonding are tertiary alcohols; epoxides play only a minor role. The magnitude of the bond energy values is significantly higher than that for typical hydrogen bonding. The hydrogen bond energy between GO functional groups and solvent molecules decreases in the sequence: water 4 methanol 4 ethanol. We support our theoretical results by several experimental observations including solution calorimetry. The enthalpy of GO dissolution in water, methanol and ethanol is À0.1815 AE 0.0010, À0.1550 AE 0.0012 and À0.1040 AE 0.0010 kJ g À1 , respectively, in full accordance with the calculated trend. Our findings provide an explanation for the well-known, but poorly understood solvent exchange phenomenon.
The unusual temperature
behavior of the electron spin resonance
(ESR) spectra and magnetic properties are experimentally observed
in copper(II) complexes with a dendritic ligand based on the Boltorn
H30 polymer (Perstorp Specialty Chemicals AB, Sweden) functionalized
with fumaric acid residues in a molar ratio of 1:6. The ESR spectra
at low temperatures show signs of transition to higher spin states
at temperatures below 8–10 K, and the temperature dependences
of the integral ESR signal intensities and magnetic susceptibility
show the positive deviation from the Curie–Weiss law, thereby
pointing to the presence of ferromagnetic exchange interactions in
the system under study. The values of the exchange interaction parameters
are calculated by quantum-chemical simulation of the possible structure
of the copper(II) complex when assuming the formation of trinuclear
coordination sites embedded in the hyperbranched polymer structure.
The results of density functional theory calculations indicate the
possibility of ferromagnetic exchange through carboxylate bridges
in the trinuclear magnetic clusters, and the calculated values of
the exchange interaction parameters make it possible to construct
theoretical curves of the temperature dependence of the effective
magnetic moment, which satisfactorily fit the experimental data, especially
considering that polymers are characterized by disperse molecular
weights and chemical structures.
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