Chemical synthesis of graphene oxide and graphene

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) was first synthesized using a modified Hummers method. The success of the synthesis was affirmed by using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to find out the experimental values of GO and then comparing it with values obtained from other research papers.

Subsequently, after GO was successfully synthesized, which yielded a stock solution of 30mgml-1, 3 different concentration of GO; 0.15mgml-1, 0.30mgml-1, 0.45mgml-1, was used as sample solution whereby a size selection process was conducted on. The size selection process was conducted using conventional sedimentation centrifuge technique. Each solution was subjected to 3 centrifugation processes, and the rounds per minute (rpm) used were 3000pm, 6000rpm and 9000rpm. Interestingly, it was found out that only a certain concentration works best for the size selection process. As concentration of GO increases, the efficacy to size selection using conventional sedimentation centrifuge technique decreases.

Also, in order to demonstrate that the integrity of GO was unchanged after being centrifuged, silver nano-particles (NPs) were grown on a selected concentration of GO. Positive results were yielded, when AFM successfully detected the growth of silver NPs exclusively on the different sized GO.