Graphene oxide and its reduction: modeling and experimental progress

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) has attracted intense interest for its use as a precursor material for the mass production of graphene-based materials, which hold great potential in various applications. Insights into the structure of GO and reduced GO (RGO) are of significant interest, as their properties are dependent on the type and distribution of functional groups, defects, and holes from missing carbons in the GO carbon lattice. Modeling the structural motifs of GO can predict the structural evolution in its reduction and presents promising directions to tailor the properties of RGO. Two general reduction approaches, chemical and thermal, are proposed to achieve highly reduced GO materials. This review introduces typical chemical oxidation methods to produce GO from pure graphite, then summarizes the modeling progress on the GO structure and its oxidation and reduction dynamics, and lastly, presents the recent progress of RGO preparation through chemical and thermal reduction approaches. By summarizing recent studies on GO structural modeling and its reduction, this review leads to a deeper understanding of GO morphology and reduction path, and suggests future directions for the scalable production of graphene-based materials through atomic engineering.

Facile and size-controllable preparation of graphene oxide nanosheets using high shear method and ultrasonic method

“…Recently, there has been growing interest in exfoliation of layered materials to produce two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets, such as graphene [2][3][4][5][6], graphene oxide (GO) [1,[7][8][9][10], etc. GO has recently attracted substantial interest as a possible intermediate for the preparation of graphene [11][12][13] and metal oxide/graphene nanocomposites [14][15][16]. It also has been used to prepare a strong paper-like material owing mainly to their interesting electrical, thermal, mechanical and optical properties [1,8,10,[17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

Microwave plasmas applied for the synthesis of free standing graphene sheets

“…Unfortunately this method cannot yet be scaled up for commercial applications. The generation of graphene oxide from graphite and the thermal reduction of the former is a second example of a top-down strategy; however despite rendering much higher yields, the method produces a highly defective product [7]. Bottom-up approaches include epitaxial growth, chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and vacuum graphitization of silicon carbide substrates, among others [2,[8][9][10].…”

Fusion of nacre, mussel, and lotus leaf: bio-inspired graphene composite paper with multifunctional integration

“…Nowadays, many different synthesis strategies have been developed to produce graphene through the reduction of GO. [32][33][34][35] Among the wide variety of synthesis strategies, chemical reduction of GO using dopamine reagent is one of the most promising. [36][37][38][39][40][41] In such a process, dopamine acts simultaneously as a reducing agent in situ for GO and as a capping agent to stabilize and decorate the resultant graphene surface for further functionalization, owing to its fascinating properties (reduction, self-polymerization, and adhesion).…”