To ascertain whether anthraquinone was covalently attached to the CMK-3 support, FT-IR was used to monitor the loss of amine groups from 2-AAQ following functionalization (Figure & Figure .1) as well as the presence of the quinone carbonyls. Activated carbon is highly absorbing of IR light, resulting in low signal intensity for both CMK-3 samples. However, weak anthraquinone peaks can still be identified in f-CMK-3. The peaks for N-H and C-N bonds, shown at 3500 (Figure .2), 1650 -1580 (blue shaded) and 1342 -1266 cm -1 , respectively, were observed in the 2-AAQ spectrum but were absent in u-CMK-3 and f-CMK-3. Though the signal intensities are weak for these samples, C-N modes are predicted to have strong transmittance due to aryl resonance and their absence, as well as the lack of N-H peaks in the f-CMK-3 spectrum, support the loss of amine groups during anthraquinone grafting. This was also supported by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) measurements where nitrogen was absent in the chemical composition of f-CMK-3 (Figure .1 and Figure .2). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) did show a trace amount of nitrogen however, the origin was unknown (Figure .1). Meanwhile, the stretch of the carbonyl group at 1650 cm -1 (red shaded) was seen in both the 2-AAQ and f-CMK-3 spectra but not the u-CMK-3 spectrum, confirming the presence of quinone in the functionalised carbon. Peaks seen in f-CMK-3 at 1290 cm -1 are also present in anthraquinone and therefore are not assigned to C-N bond in 2-AAQ. The absence of N-H peaks in the f-CMK-3 spectrum supports the loss of the amine group during the radical synthesis, resulting in anthraquinone being covalently grafted to the CMK-3 structure. Solid state C NMR was used to further confirm the presence of anthraquinone in the f-CMK-3 structure (Figure ). An intense broad peak was observed at approximately 120 ppm for both samples, and was assigned to graphitic-like sp 2 -hybridised carbon. The highlighted peak at 180 ppm for f-CMK-3 structure supports the additional presence of carbonyl bonds in anthraquinone units after functionalisation. Consistent with this, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) showed an increase in the carbonyl signal following functionalisation (Figure .1).