Investigation on Relaxational Behavior of Alkylammonium Ions Intercalated in Graphite Oxide

Graphite oxide (GO) nanocomposites have been synthesized to contain various concentrations of intercalated alkylaminonium ions and chaiacterited with X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry. Depending on their concentration, the alkyl chains may lie parallel to the GO plane one or two layers thick or they form two columns inclined at an angle similar to 37 degrees to the plane. Dielectric pectroscopy reveals a relaxation process fat below room temperature, attributed, to small:angle wobbling around the long molecular axis. The activation chergy of this relaxation increases as the intercalate Changes from one to two layers, and to dual columns, with increasing interactions an long the intercalated molecules. An additional phase transition occurs in composites with high concentrations of intercalate between a rotator-type solid phase to a discitdered phase for the confined alkyl chains.