CARBONLETT, vol. 24, no. 1, pp.1-9, 2017

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5714/CL.

Study on properties of eco-friendly reduction agents for the reduced graphene oxide method

Young-il Na^1,*, Young Il Song^1,2,*, Sun Woo Kim¹ and Su-Jeong Suh^1,2,♠

Affiliation: ¹School of Advanced Materials Science & Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Korea
²Advanced Materials and Process Research Center for IT, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Korea

Abstract: using eco-friendly reduction agents in the graphene solution process. Hydrazine is generally used to reduce graphene oxide (GO), which results in polluting emissions as well as fixed nitrogen functional groups on different defects in the graphene sheets. To replace hydrazine, we developed eco-friendly reduction agents with similar or better reducing properties, and selected of them for further analysis. In this study, GO layers were produced from graphite flakes using a modified Hummer’s method, and rGO layers were reduced using hydrazine hydrate, L-ascorbic acid, and gluconic acid. We measured the particle sizes and the dispersion stabilities in the rGO dispersed solvents for the three agents and analyzed the structural, electrical, and optical properties of the rGO films. The results showed that the degree of reduction was in the order L-ascorbic acid ≥ hydrazine > glucose. GO reduced using L-ascorbic acid had a sheet resistance of 121 kΩ/sq, while that reduced using gluconic acid showed worse electrical properties than the other two reduction agents. Therefore, L-ascorbic acid is the most suitable eco-friendly reduction agent that can be substituted for hydrazine.

Keyword: graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, modified Hummer’s method, ecofriendly reduction agents, zeta potential