Photoredox-Mediated ATRP: A Facile Method for Modification of Graphite Fluoride and Graphene Fluoride without Deoxygenation

Graphite fluoride (GiF) and graphene fluoride (GeF) showed interesting electrochemical, electronic, and mechanical properties in comparison with their derivatives of graphite and graphene, respectively. Due to the chemical inertness of GiF and GeF, as far as we are aware, no report can be found on the modification of GiF and GeF with polymeric chains. Herein, we reported that photoredox-mediated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) is able to directly introduce methacrylate-based polymers, including poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate) (POEGMA), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), poly(pentafluorophenyl methacrylate) (PPFMA), and poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA), onto the surface of GiF and GeF by utilizing C–F bonds of GiF and GeF as initiating sites and Ir(ppy)3 as a photoredox catalyst under low intensity blue LED light strips (10 W, 460–470 nm) in DMF for graft polymerization without a tedious deoxygenation procedure. Owing to the attractive properties of GiF and GeF, along with the capacity of spatial control over the formation of polymeric chains on the surface of GiF and GeF endowed by the inherent nature of photoredox-mediated ATRP, there is no doubt that the strategy developed in the current work shows a great potential in the preparation of polymer-decorated GiF and GeF and the corresponding functional materials.