Abstract:
The discovery of graphene in 2004 stunned the scientific community due to
its extraordinary properties. The exorbitant cost of production limits the use
of graphene on an industrial scale. Graphene oxide (GO) offers most of
graphene's characteristics along with a few additional ones. The production of
GO requires a number of chemical reactions that need to be carefully
controlled. Protective agents are used to maintain the sheet-like structure of
GO and improve the safety of the reaction. This study is examining the impact
of the type of protective agent on the final GO product. The Tour’s method
was used to produce GO, with small changes in time and temperature.
Preparations involved the use of the most common protective agents,
phosphoric and boric acids. XRD, Raman, and SEM analyses were carried out
to characterize both samples to confirm the formation of GO. The d spacing
values for GO produced with boric and phosphoric acid were 8.1402 and
8.0160, respectively. For both samples, the number of layers was about two,
and the Id/Ig ratio was 0.87. GO produced without the use of protective agents
frequently has more than 1.0 Id/Ig ratio values. However, the GO prepared
with phosphoric acid is comparatively planner sheets and has sharp edges,
while the GO prepared with boric acid is slightly wrinkled. It is clear from this
that both acids have beneficial protective effects despite having very different
final GO structures. Therefore, the protective agent may be selected based on
the requirements of the GO's final application.
