▎ 摘　　要

Chemically-modified gum arabic with glycidyl methacrylate was used for liquid-phase direct exfoliation of graphite. Using this technique, glycidyl methacrylate-modified gum arabic-functionalized graphene flakes can be easily obtained by centrifugal separation after sonication. It was demonstrated by transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The functionalized graphene flakes, coupled with vinyl groups coming from the glycidyl methacrylate-modified gum arabic, were introduced into a poly (acrylic acid) hydrogel to improve its mechanical property. Compared to poly (acrylic acid) hydrogel, the compressive strength and elastic modulus of the graphene/poly (acrylic acid) composite hydrogel with 5 wt% of functionalized graphene flakes reach similar to 49.2 and similar to 66.9 kPa, increased by similar to 846.1% and similar to 243.7%, respectively. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.