The Real Graphene Oxide Revealed: Stripping the Oxidative Debris from the Graphene‐like Sheets

It′ll come out in the wash! Graphene oxide has been shown to be a stable complex of oxidative debris (red ellipses in the picture) strongly adhered to functionalized graphene-like sheets. Under basic conditions the oxidative debris is stripped from the graphene-like sheets, and the resulting graphene oxide is conducting and cannot easily be resuspended in water.