Facile and green synthesis of graphene

作者：Vusa Chiranjeevi Srinivasa Rao; Berchmans Sheela; Alwarappan Subbiah^*

来源：RSC Advances, 2014, 4(43): 22470-22475.

DOI：10.1039/c4ra01718h

Herein, we report a simple, facile, green and cost effective strategy for the synthesis of graphene using naturally available anti-oxidants such as carotenoids present in vegetable (carrot, sweet potato, etc.) extracts. In this work, we have employed carrot extract to reduce graphene oxide to reduced graphene oxide. A red shift (in the lambda(max) from 230 nm to 270 nm) during the course of the reduction of GO clearly indicates the effective restoration of the sp(2) graphitic carbons. In addition, we have also noticed the colour change of the reaction mixture from yellowish brown to black after 1 hour, thereby indicating the reduction of GO to reduced graphene oxide (Ct-RGO). Further, an increase in the D/G ratio value of GO from 0.979 to 1.198 after the complete reduction indicated the effective restoration of the in plane sp(2) domains in the Ct-RGO. The morphology and conductivities of the Ct-RGO are characterized by several characterization techniques such as UV, FT-IR, Raman, XRD, XPS, SEM, TEM, AFM and EIS. The green synthesis reported in this work is expected to yield a biocompatible graphene material suitable for futuristic biological applications.

• 出版日期2014