A non-heat-source process for preparing graphene oxide with low energy consumption

Abstract

As the most widely used method for preparing graphene oxide (GO), Hummers’ method always involves a key step, that is adding water to concentrated sulfuric acid. We found that if this process is cancelled, the oxidation degree of GO will be significantly reduced. This means that the heat released during concentrated sulfuric acid dilution will promote further oxidation of GO. In this paper, we fully utilize the heat released during concentrated sulfuric acid dilution to develop a new non-heat-source process without any low-/high-temperature auxiliar, exponentially reducing the energy consumption and largely avoiding the frequent temperature control. The result shows that GO prepared by Hummers’ method and that prepared by the proposed process show a similar structure, composition, morphology, and defect degree. Meanwhile, the corresponding reduced GO (rGO) obtained after reduction shows similar capacitive behavior. Their specific capacitances are 243.6 F g⁻¹ and 240.3 F g⁻¹ at 1 A g⁻¹, respectively, and they both have a long-term cycling performance (with a 100% capacitance retention after 10 000 cycles at 30 A g⁻¹). This study provides a new strategy for the preparation of GO with low energy consumption.