Graphene-based materials have attracted considerable attention due to their unique combination of physical properties, for example, high optical transmittance, high electrical and thermal conductivity, and enormous mechanical strength. To further modify these properties, graphene has been doped with a broad array of heteroatoms, such as boron, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine. Recently, different methods to prepare a fluorinated version, so-called fluorographene, have been reported. The physical properties of the material can be tuned by changing the fluorine content. However, controlling the fluorine concentration is far from being trivial.

Zdeněk Sofer, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Czech Republic, and colleagues have developed a simple technique to prepare fluorinated graphene by thermal exfoliation of fluorographite. The fluorine content of the material can be controlled by variation of the exfoliation temperature. The high-temperature exfoliated variant shows excellent catalytic properties in the reduction of oxygen, while exhibiting high heterogeneous electron transfer rates.

The researchers hope that the synthetic procedure could be a simple way to develop fluorinated graphene-based devices with tailored properties.

• Simple Synthesis of Fluorinated Graphene: Thermal Exfoliation of Fluorographite,
  Ondřej Jankovský, Vlastimil Mazánek, Kateřina Klímová, David Sedmidubský, Jiří Kosina, Martin Pumera, Zdeněk Sofer,
  Chem. Eur. J. 2016, 22, 17696–17703.
  DOI: 10.1002/chem.201604078