A Facile Method for Batch Preparation of Electrochemically Reduced Graphene Oxide

Abstract

The electrochemical reduction of graphene oxide (GO) is an environmentally friendly and energy-saving method for improving the characteristics of GO. However, GO films must be coated on the cathode electrode in advance when usingthis technique. Thus, the formed electrochemically reduced GO (ERGO) films can be used only as sensing or conductive materials in devices because mass production of the flakes is not possible. Therefore, this study proposes a facile electrochemical reduction technique. In this technique, GO flakes can be directly used as reduced materials, and no GO films are required in advance. A 0.1 M phosphate buffered saline solution was used as the electrolyte, which is a highly safe chemical agent. Experimental results revealed that the as-prepared GO flakes were electrochemically reduced to form ERGO flakes by using a −10 V bias for 8 h. The ratio of the D-band and G-band feature peaks was increased from 0.86 to 1.12, as revealed by Raman spectroscopy, the π-π stacking interaction operating between the ERGO and GO has been revealed by UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, and the C–O ratio was increased from 2.02 to 2.56, as indicated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The electrical conductivity of the ERGO film (3.83 × 10−1 S·cm−1) was considerably better than that of the GO film (7.92 × 10−4 S·cm−1). These results demonstrate that the proposed electrochemical reduction technique can provide high-quality ERGO flakes and that it has potential for large-scale production.

Keywords

• electrochemically reduced graphene oxide
• graphene oxide
• phosphate buffered saline
• Raman spectroscopy
• X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy