**3.1 Particle characterization**

The mechanism of attaching molecular amine groups to fluorographene through substitution of surface fluorine atoms has been previously reported [32]. In this work, TETA served both as solvent to exfoliate fluorographite and as a reagent for introduction of amino functional groups onto the exfoliated fluorographene to produce Amine Reacted Florographene (ARFG) particles. The color of fluorographite changed from white to black during this substitution reaction. In the second step, the amine groups on ARFG were capped with EPON 826, a low molecular weight diglycidyl epoxy resin derived from bisphenol A. FT-IR spectroscopy was used to identify the chemical groups present on the particles during each step of synthesis. In **Figure 3a**, a prominent feature at 1260 cm−1 characteristic of covalent C-F stretching of fluorographite was detected [33]. There are three identifying absorptions peaks for TETA: 1050–1200 cm−1, 1450 cm−1, 1600 cm−1 representing C-N stretching, C-H bending, and N-H bending, respectively [34, 35]. In the ARFG FTIR spectrum, a broad absorption peak appears from 1000 cm−1 to 1200 cm−1 as a result of C-N stretching appeared in place of C-F stretching. The C-F stretching absorption peak at 1260 cm−1 is greatly diminished in comparison to the starting material, fluorographite. The 1580 cm−1 absorption on the ARFG is inherited from TETA representing N-H bending. In the FTIR spectrum ofERFG, the epoxy functionality display a large number of additional absorptions peaks: 1034 cm−1, 1184 cm−1 and 1241 cm−1, 1300 cm−1, 1509 cm−1 representing C-O-C ether stretching, C-C-O-C stretching, stretching of cyclic ether, and C-C stretching of aromatic ring, respectively [36, 37]. In ERFG, the C-O-C absorptions extended the broad feature seen in ARFG (1000 cm−1 to 1200 cm−1) to a broader range (1000 cm−1 to 1300 cm−1), which indicates the presence of epoxy groups onto the ERFG particles. The high aspect ratio, single-digit microsized, and few-layer sheet [38] ERFG was shown in the TEM micrographs of ERFG particles (**Figure 3b**).
