Graphene oxide becomes a popular precursor for graphene synthesis. However, a conventional Hummers' method is not "green" since it uses strong acid and oxides. Is there any method to avoid these chemicals?
High Anming, yes you are right the conventional method to graphene is via graphite oxide which is not green rather involve many vigorous oxidizing and reducing agent,so there must be some alternative to this conventional route. In view, I think we must focus on chief naturally occurring hydro carbon source which can be converted to graphene or graphene oxide by heating in inert atmosphere which avoids use of any toxic chemical reagent.
So by thermal reduction of natural sources we can get graphene oxide which will be the alternative to chemical method for large scale synthesis of graphene/graphene oxide. In fact in the literature you will find some papers where people have synthesized graphene from natural source like lotus flower petals (RAY etals,Carbon), also from polythene wase people have synthesized graphene. By thermal reduction of these natural source we can also avoid CVD which involve use of reactive gases.
HI Anming,
You may want to look to this papers Chem. Mater., 2009, 21 (13), pp 2950–2956.
Also UV is a viable reduction method
Carlo A.
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