Graphene material prepared by thermal reduction of the electrochemically synthesized graphite oxide

Abstract

In the present work we demonstrate a simple and effective way to produce bulk quantities of graphene material. For the first time, graphite oxide (GO), synthesized by electrochemical treatment of natural graphite in HClO₄ aqueous solution, was used to obtain thermally exfoliated-reduced graphite oxide (TRGO). Herein, GO was thermally exfoliated and reduced at 500 °C in air, giving the final product of TRGO. Due to shock treatment, the volume of the synthesized TRGO drastically increased compared to the starting GO. Furthermore, the exfoliation process resulted in a significant decrease in the concentration of oxygen functionalities. The choice of GO exfoliation temperature was preceded by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). TRGO was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis.