Synthesis of Graphene Oxide via Liquid Exfoliation Using Self-Custom-Made Tweeter Piezoelectric Ultrasound Generator and Assisted by Surfactant from Commercial Detergent

Abstract

Rapid progress in nanotechnology requires the production of novel nanomaterials. This study aims to synthesize Graphene Oxide (GO) via the Liquid Exfoliation (LE) method using a self-custom-made tweeter piezoelectric system as the ultrasound generator. Linear Alkylbenzena Sulfonate (LAS) surfactant contained in commercial detergent is used to assist the exfoliation process. This synthesis method is simple, inexpensive and may produce GO in a large quantity. Furthermore, the effect of the sonication time on the synthesis of GO is studied. The UV-Vis spectrophotometer and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) are used to characterize the synthesis results. UV-Vis analysis shows that the longer the sonication time spent, the thinner the GO layers produced. Moreover, images from SEM show that the surface morphology of the GO forms transparent layers which are stacked together on top of each other.

Effect of Frequency and Number of Piezoelectric Probes in Sonication-assisted Exfoliation of Graphite Layers into Graphene Oxide

“…The present study is a significant development of a previous study with newly modified construction of the selfcustom-made ultrasound generator. 29 Moreover, the frequency and the number of piezoelectric probes of the ultrasound generator are varied. The objective of this study is to determine the effect of the aforementioned variables towards the exfoliation of graphite layers into GO materials based on UV-Visual (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer and SEM results.…”

“…The initial construction of the ultrasound generator may be viewed in the left-most picture of Figure 1. 29 The apparatus needed to assemble the ultrasound generator are, from left to right of the left-most picture of Figure 1: (1) an audio generator (CSi/SPECO SS-1);…”