Experimental Investigation of Graphene Oxide Properties Synthesized Through a Facile Scalable Method

The present study investigates a chemical oxidation method for graphene oxide (GO) synthesis with a facile modification in the Tour method. The study aims to optimize the modified synthesis process with a reduced amount of acid intercalants, shortening the production time and improving the quality of GO for large-scale production of graphene derivatives. The present study results show a reduction in acid reagent usage and processing time by approximately 70% and 90%, respectively, compared to the Tour method, and the final process yield exhibited a significant improvement of approximately 114% (ranging from 77% to 188%) for the modified method as compared to the Tour method. Finally, synthesized GO samples are characterized using XRD, FTIR, and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The GO crystalline structure analysis revealed an interlayer spacing thickness of up to 0.82 nm, which is attributed to higher oxygenated functional groups between layers. Additionally, the synthesized GO exhibited an estimated crystallite size of ∼8 nm with approximate number of layers of 10 ± 1, which is significantly low compared to precursor graphite having 55 ± 3 nm crystallite size and an estimated number of layers around 165 ± 3. The study also highlighted the impact of oxidation parameters, namely, processing temperature, time, and graphite inputs, on produced GO output product yield, oxidation level, crystallite size, and an average number of layers, where it is confirmed that the processing temperature has obvious effects as compared to other parameters.