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Inducing magnetic moments in graphene is very important for its potential application in spintronics. Introducing sp3-defects on the graphene basal plane is deemed as the most promising approach to produce magnetic graphene. However, its universal validity has not been very well verified experimentally. By functionalization of approximately pure amino groups on graphene basal plane, a spin-generalization efficiency of ~1 μB/100 NH2 was obtained for the first time, thus providing substantial evidence for the validity of inducing magnetic moments by sp3-defects. As well, amino groups provide another potential sp3-type candidate to prepare magnetic graphene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inducing robust magnetic moments on the basal plane of the graphene sheet is very difficult, and is one of the greatest challenges in the study of physical chemistry of graphene materials. Theoretical studies predicted that introduction of a kind of sp3-type defects formed by OH groups is an effective pathway to achieve this goal [Boukhvalov, D. W. &Katsnelson, M. I. ACS Nano 5, 2440-2446 (2011)]. Here we demonstrate that OH groups can efficiently induce robust magnetic moments on the basal plane of the graphene sheet. We show that the inducing efficiency can reach as high as 217 μB per 1000 OH groups. More interestingly, the magnetic moments are robust and can survive even at 900°C. Our findings highlight the importance of OH group as an effective sp3-type candidate for inducing robust magnetic moments on the basal plane of the graphene sheet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]