Electrochemically reduced graphene nanoribbons: Interference from inherent electrochemistry of the material in DPV studies

Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) are attracting the interest of scientific community due to the outstanding versatility of their properties and applications. One of the most successful routes for the production of GNRs is the oxidative unzipping of carbon nanotubes followed by electrochemical reduction of oxygen functionalities. Electrochemically reduced graphene nanoribbons may present a reduced anodic potential window due to the intrinsic reversible chemistry of oxygen functionalities. Here we show that the oxidation signal obtained for caffeine on GNRs is strongly influenced by the inherent background signal of the reduced graphene nanoribbon material. Our findings provide important insight into the origin of the electrochemical signal obtained in the anodic region when using electrochemically reduced graphene nanoribbons as platform for sensing and biosensing. This insight bears high importance for future use of electrochemically reduced graphene nanoribbons in electroanalysis.