$\pi$-bonding-dominated energy gaps in graphene oxides

Abstract

Chemical bondings of graphene oxides with oxygen concentration from 1\% to 50\% are investigated using first-principle calculations. Energy gaps are mainly determined by the competition of orbital hybridizations in C-C, O-O, and C-O bonds. They are very sensitive to the changes in oxygen concentration and distributions. There exists five types of $\pi$ bondings during the variation from the full to vanishing adsorptions, namely the complete termination, the partial suppression, the 1D bonding, the deformed planar bonding, and the well-behaved one. They can account for the finite and gapless characteristics, corresponding to the O-concentrations of $>$25\% and $<$3\%, respectively. The feature-rich chemical bondings dominate band structures and density of states, leading to diverse electronic properties.