An Investigation on the Probability of Enhance Oxidation State of Metal-Based and Carbon-Based Precursors by Using Plasma Technology

Dielectric barrier discharge technique (DBD) is a new methods for plasma formation which can be used to enhance the oxidation state of different materials. In this study, the probability of enhancing the oxidation state of carbon-based (graphene oxide and multi-walled carbon nanotube) and metal-based (nano-magnetite and nano-alumina) precursors was investigated. In this way, the oxidation state of the materials was evaluated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) before and after the plasma process. In addition the dispersity of the nanoparticles in an aqueous solution was investigated by zeta potential method. The obtained results revealed that after the plasma processing, the weight percentage of oxygen element increased about 59% and 33% for graphene oxide and carbon nanotube samples, respectively. However, the metal-based materials were not affected by the plasma process. Indeed, depending on the type of produced oxygen radicals in the plasma space, different groups such as carboxylic acid, hydroxyl, lactone, and lactol groups can be formed on the surface of the carbon-based materials which led to the increasing of the oxidation state of the nanoparticles.