Preparation of Cationic Surfactant Intercalated Graphene Oxide and Quantitative Determination of the Interlamellar Spacing

Graphene Oxide (GO) was prepared from natural graphite and treated with different types and various amounts of cationic surfactants to form the intercalation nanocomposites. The resulting specimens were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that the interlamellar spacing strongly depended on the mole mass ratios between GO to cationic surfactants and the alkyl chain length of surfactants. In addition, a model was proposed to illustrate the procedure of cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC)-GO intercalation, and the angles of inclination between the alkyl chains and GO planes were calculated based on the model.