Chemical hydrogenation of single-layer graphene enables completely reversible removal of electrical conductivity

The chemical modification of graphene greatly expands its potential applications in electronics, chemistry, and biology. Here, we report the rapid and extensive hydrogenation of single layer CVD graphene using the Birch reduction method. This method hydrogenates much more extensively than cold plasmas and electrochemical methods. Moreover, use of single layer graphene enables greater control of electronic conductivity than previously achieved with the Birch method using multilayer graphene or graphene oxide. Indeed, this method enables both the elimination of electronic conductivity through hydrogenation and the subsequent recovery of essentially pristine graphene with thermal annealing—a reversible >107 fold change in resistance. Raman and photoelectron spectroscopies show that the reaction is complete within 90 s of immersion. Finally, we show that we can use the Birch reduction to functionalize graphene with tributyltin moieties.