Fabrication and Characteristics of Reduced Graphene Oxide Produced with Different Green Reductants

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 12; p. e0144842
• Main Authors: Xu, Changyan, Shi, Xiaomei, Ji, An, Shi, Lina, Zhou, Chen, Cui, Yunqi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 14.12.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Acids; Ammonia; Ascorbic acid; Ascorbic Acid - chemistry; Camellia sinensis - chemistry; Carbon; Chemical reduction; Composite materials; Dispersion; Electric Conductivity; Electrical conductivity; Electrical resistivity; Engineering; Fabrication; Fourier transforms; Functional groups; Glucose; Glucose - chemistry; Graphene; Graphite; Graphite - chemistry; Green Chemistry Technology; Humans; Infrared analysis; Infrared spectra; Materials; Methods; Oxidation-Reduction; Oxides; Oxygen; Photoelectron spectroscopy; Photoelectrons; Polyphenols - chemistry; Polyphenols - isolation & purification; Potassium; Production processes; Properties; Raman spectra; Raman spectroscopy; Reducing Agents - chemistry; Sodium; Spectroscopy; Tea; Vitamin C; X ray photoelectron spectroscopy; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144842

There has been an upsurge of green reductants for the preparation of graphene materials taking consideration of human health and the environment in recent years. In this paper, reduced graphene oxides (RGOs) were prepared by chemical reduction of graphene oxide (GO) with three green reductants, L-ascorbic acid (L-AA), D-glucose (D-GLC) and tea polyphenol (TP), and comparatively characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra, Raman spectra and electrical conductivity analysis. Results showed that all these three reductants were effective to remove oxygen-containing functional groups in GO and restore the electrical conductivity of the obtained RGO. The RGO sample with L-ascorbic acid as a reductant and reduced with the existence of ammonia had the highest electrical conductivity (9.8 S·cm(-1)) among all the obtained RGO samples. The mechanisms regarding to the reduction of GO and the dispersion of RGO in water were also proposed. It is the good dispersibility of reduced graphene oxide in water that will facilitate its further use in composite materials and conductive ink.