Magnetism in oxidized graphenes with hydroxyl groups

The magnetic properties of three oxidized graphene structures with hydroxyl groups (cases A, B and C) have been investigated through spin-polarized density functional theory. The results reveal that in a graphene hexagonal ring structure, chemical bond formation by two non-neighbored hydroxyl-bonded carbon atoms with one carbon atom between (case B) can cause unpaired spins to produce a magnetic moment of 1.2 μB, while chemical bond formation by two neighbored hydroxyl-bonded carbon atoms (case A) or non-neighbored hydroxyl-bonded carbon atoms with two carbon atoms between (case C) cannot generate unpaired spins for nonmagnetic states. These magnetic oxidized graphenes have great promise for new spintronics. This work provides fundamentals to controllably synthesize or/and oxidized graphene with hydroxyl groups at specific carbon positions for magnetic properties.