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Tuning microstructure and surface chemistry of reduced graphene oxide by mild reduction

  • Materials, Metallurgy, Chemical and Environmental Engineering
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Abstract

Reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheets with varied contents and types of oxygenated groups were synthesized by Hummers treatment of natural graphite powders followed by different nontoxic and mild reduction methods, which include thermal and chemical reduction with ethylene glycol, KOH and Fe powder. The changes in microstructure and surface chemistry of RGOs were extensively characterized by SEM, TEM, AFM, XRD, XPS and Raman spectrum. The results show that significant exfoliation occurs during oxidation and is retained in reduction processes, along with the formation of curled wavy morphology. Compared with large d spacing (0.852 nm) of graphene oxide (GO), the (002) plane distance decreases to 0.358-0.384 nm of RGOs, indicating efficient tuning of surface functionalities through mild reduction methods. The I D/I G ratio of RGOs is about 1.0-1.15, indicating that reconstructed sp2 domains have smaller sizes and larger quantity. The content of sp2 bonded C in GO (36.93%, molar fraction) increases to 45.48%-72.92% (molar fraction) in RGOs, along with a drastic decrease in hydroxyl and epoxy and minor changes in carbonyl and carboxyl. Thermal reduction or chemical reduction produces RGOs with residual functionalities, which may render different chemical activity and is desirable in various applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Xian Leng  (冷娴), Ru-tie Liu  (刘如铁), Jian-peng Zou  (邹俭鹏), Xiang Xiong  (熊翔) & Han-wei He  (何捍卫)

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  1. Xian Leng  (冷娴)
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  2. Ru-tie Liu  (刘如铁)
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  3. Jian-peng Zou  (邹俭鹏)
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Correspondence to Jian-peng Zou  (邹俭鹏).

Additional information

Foundation item: Project(51274248) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China; Projects(2015DFR50580, 2013DFA31440) supported by the International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Program of China

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Leng, X., Liu, Rt., Zou, Jp. et al. Tuning microstructure and surface chemistry of reduced graphene oxide by mild reduction. J. Cent. South Univ. 23, 1823–1830 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-016-3236-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-016-3236-4

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