Chemical Approach to Ultrastiff, Strong, and Environmentally Stable Graphene Films

Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets prepared by a modified Hofmann method (Ho-rGO) have large graphitic domains with few structural defects, facilitating the dense packing between rGO sheets to enhance the mechanical performances of the resultant graphene films. Graphene films are fabricated by the filtration of the aqueous dispersions of Ho-rGO sheets and further treated by thermal annealing. They display high moduli (stiffness) of 54.6 +/- 1.4 GPa and high tensile strengths of 521 +/- 19 MPa. They also exhibit high toughness and good electrical properties. The intact structure of Ho-rGO sheets narrows the nanochannels in the film matrices, greatly reducing the water infiltration into films and providing the graphene films with excellent environmental stability. These graphene films are attractive for practical applications because of their light weights and ultrastiff and ultrastrong mechanical properties.