Fig. 2.

Characterization of GO-g-PAM molecular brushes. a Schematic illustration of the synthesis of GO-g-PAM molecular brushes: modifying GO nanosheets by α-bromoisobutyryl bromide to introduce Br-containing initiation sites and in situ grafting PAM chains from the modified surface of GO nanosheets via SI-ATRP. b FTIR spectra of GO and GO-g-PAM. c, d SEM images of GO-g-PAM. e, f Elemental mapping showing the molecular-level homogeneous distribution of N on GO nanosheets. Scale bars: (c) 20 μm, (d) 2 μm, and (e) 500 nm