Study of Reduced Graphene Oxide Preparation by Hummers’ Method and Related Characterization

Abstract

As a novel two-dimensional carbon material, graphene has fine potential applications in the fields of electron transfer agent and supercapacitor material for its excellent electronic and optical property. However, the challenge is to synthesize graphene in a bulk quantity. In this paper, graphite oxide was prepared from natural flake graphite by Hummers’ method through liquid oxidization, and the reduced graphene oxide was obtained by chemical reduction of graphene oxide using NH3·H2O aqueous solution and hydrazine hydrate. The raw material graphite, graphite oxide, and reduced graphene oxide were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), attenuated total reflectance-infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR), and field emission scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results indicated that the distance spacing of graphite oxide was longer than that of graphite and the crystal structure of graphite was changed. The flake graphite was oxidized to graphite oxide and lots of oxygen-containing groups were found in the graphite oxide. In the morphologies of samples, fold structure was found on both the surface and the edge of reduced graphene oxide.