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Thermal reduction of graphene oxide: How temperature influences purity

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Abstract

Among various methods used for the reduction of graphene oxide (GO) into a purer form of graphene, the thermal reduction method provides a simpler, safer, and economic alternative, compared to other techniques. Thermal reduction of GO causes significant weight loss and volume expansion of the material. Current work investigates the onset temperature where reduction in terms of exfoliation takes place, which is determined to be 325 °C at standard atmospheric pressure. Reduction temperature plays the most crucial role as it controls the quality of reduced graphene oxide in terms of weight percentage of carbon and lattice defect. The study leads to achieving highest content with a minimum defect in the graphene lattice at the optimum temperature, which is found to be 350 °C at standard atmospheric pressure. The thermal reduction process has been analyzed with the help of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and thermal degradation kinetics. From thermal degradation kinetics of GO, the rate of reaction has been found to be independent of concentration and is a sole function of temperature.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors express their gratitude to the DST-FIST funded XPS laboratory at the Department of Physics and Meteorology, IIT Kharagpur, for their help in conducting the XPS analysis. The authors also acknowledge FESEM and XRD laboratory and Departmental Research Facility at the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, for their co-operation in carrying out the experiments and analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, 721302, India

    Iman Sengupta, Samarshi Chakraborty, Monikangkana Talukdar & Sudipto Chakraborty

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, 721302, India

    Surjya K. Pal

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  1. Iman Sengupta
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  2. Samarshi Chakraborty
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  3. Monikangkana Talukdar
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Correspondence to Sudipto Chakraborty.

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Sengupta, I., Chakraborty, S., Talukdar, M. et al. Thermal reduction of graphene oxide: How temperature influences purity. Journal of Materials Research 33, 4113–4122 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2018.338

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2018.338

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