Exfoliation of Graphite into Graphene Oxide and Reduction by Plant Extract to Synthesize Graphene

Nurul Firzanah Binti Mohd Ithnin; W. W. Liu

doi:10.58915/ijneam.v17i2.718

Authors

Nurul Firzanah Binti Mohd Ithnin Faculty of Chemical Engineering Technology, Kompleks Pusat Pengajian Jejawi 2, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Taman Muhibbah, 02600 Jejawi, Arau, Perlis, Malaysia.
W. W. Liu Institute of Nano Electronic Engineering (INEE), Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), 01000 Kangar, Perlis, Malaysia.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58915/ijneam.v17i2.718

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) is a demand material in industrial field for many applications such as electronic devices, capacitor and sensor. This is due to its unique structures and excellent properties. The GO sheets were exfoliated from graphite rod in electrochemical exfoliation. To reduce GO, an electrochemical reduction of GO using green tea was carried out in this research. The conventional chemical reduction method consumed highly toxic and strongly hazardous chemicals such as hydrazine to reduce GO to reduced GO (RGO). Therefore, a green synthesis method was proposed by using green tea leaves extract as the reducing agent to synthesize RGO. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results show that low amount of oxygen-containing functional groups was remained after green tea reduction due to weak reduction capability by green tea. In addition, EDX indicates that oxygen content of GO was decreased from 23.23 to 16.89 Mass% after green tea reduction.