The structural properties of partially hydrogenated and fluorinated graphene with different percentages of H/F atoms are investigated using molecular dynamics simulations based on reactive force field (ReaxFF) potentials. We found that the roughness of graphene varies with the percentage $\left(p\right)$ of H or F and in both cases is maximal around $p=50\%$. Similar results were obtained for partially oxidized graphene. The two-dimensional area size of partially fluorinated and hydrogenated graphene exhibits a local minimum around $p=35\%$ coverage. The lattice thermal contraction in partially functionalized graphene is found to be one order of magnitude larger than that of fully covered graphene. We also show that the armchair structure for graphene oxide (similar to the structure of fully hydrogenated and fluorinated graphene) is unstable. Our results show that the structure of partially functionalized graphene changes nontrivially with the C : H and C : F ratio as well as with temperature.

• Received 5 June 2015
• Revised 7 October 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.155430