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Graphene oxide nanoplatelets of different crystallinity synthesized from helical-ribbon carbon nanofibers and multiwall carbon nanotubes

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Abstract

Graphene oxide nanoplatelets (GONPs) were obtained by unraveling helical-ribbon carbon nanofibers (HR-CNF) using a modified Hummers and Offeman method in conjunction with ultrasonication. In this account, we carry out a complete evaluation of the effect of different oxidative agent concentrations on the resulting platelet materials. Transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Fourier transform infrared, x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis were performed to carefully characterize GONPs resulting from the oxidative process. Comparative experiments using multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and graphite were also carried out. Our studies suggest that the oxidation treatment is more effective in HR-CNFs than in MWCNTs. Furthermore, the unraveling of HR-CNFs results in GONPs consisting of less stacked layers when compared to other starting materials such as graphite. Therefore, HR-CNFs appear to be excellent precursors to produce few-layered GONPs.

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Acknowledgment

HVR thanks the Spanish Ministry of Education, FPU program. MT thanks JST-Japan for funding the Research Center for Exotic NanoCarbons, under the Japanese regional Innovation Strategy Program by the Excellence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemical Engineering Department, University of Alicante, Alicante, 03690, Spain

    Helena Varela-Rizo & Iluminada Rodriguez-Pastor

  2. Grupo Antolin Ingeniería, E-09007, Burgos, Spain

    Cesar Merino

  3. Department of Physics, Department of Materials Science and Engineering & Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802-6300, USA

    Mauricio Terrones

  4. Research Center for Exotic Nanocarbons (JST), Shinshu University, Wakasato 4–17–1, Nagano, 380-8553, Japan

    Mauricio Terrones

  5. Chemical Engineering Department, University of Alicante, Alicante, 03690, Spain

    Ignacio Martin-Gullon

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  1. Helena Varela-Rizo
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  2. Iluminada Rodriguez-Pastor
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  4. Mauricio Terrones
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Correspondence to Mauricio Terrones.

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This author was an editor of this journal during the review and decision stage. For the JMR policy on review and publication of manuscripts authored by editors, please refer to http://www.mrs.org/jmr-editor-manuscripts/

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Varela-Rizo, H., Rodriguez-Pastor, I., Merino, C. et al. Graphene oxide nanoplatelets of different crystallinity synthesized from helical-ribbon carbon nanofibers and multiwall carbon nanotubes. Journal of Materials Research 26, 2632–2641 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.272

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