A Green Approach to the Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide using Sodium Humate

Abstract

Abstract A green and simple chemistry approach was demonstrated to prepare reduced graphene oxide (rGO) using sodium humate (SH) as the reducing agent. Without using toxic and harmful chemicals, this method is environmentally friendly and suitable for the large-scale production of graphene. At first, the improved Hummers method to oxidize graphite for the synthesis of graphene oxide (GO) was applied, and then the as-prepared GO was reduced by SH to form rGO. Characterization was performed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS) and Raman spectra. The intensity ratio of the D and G band (ID/IG) of GO after reduction with SH increases from 0.96 (GO) to 1.11 (rGO), the results obtained from the Raman spectra proved high purity of the final products.