Reduction of Graphene Oxide by New Chemical and Green Methods

This research deals with the preparation of Graphene Oxide (GO) from Graphite using Hummers method and then reduction of GO by three different methods (local olive leaf extract method, pure oleic acid method and sodium hypochlorite - urea in an alkaline medium method). The reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO) was analysed by infrared FTIR in the range of 400-4000 cm-1, and it was found that there are functional groups of oxygen such as epoxy group, and carbonyl group. Then rGO was analysed by UV-VIS spectroscopy in the range of 200-800 nm. Also, the structure and particle size of these sheets were studied by FESEM and EDX. It was revealed that the dimensions of the formed rGO by local olive leaf were within 500 nm-20 μm, while the reduction by chemical method in the presence of sodium hypochlorite and urea in an alkaline medium led in to a particle size in the range of 200 nm-2μm. Based on the EDX result, the GO composition is 53.22% carbon and 29.67% oxygen. The best method for synthesize of rGO was pure oleic acid method at temperature of 440 ℃ with a heating rate of 2.3 ℃/min. In this method, the particles were in the range of 200 nm-2 μm and based on EDX results, they were composed of 72.04% carbon and 24.32% oxygen.