I am working on graphene oxide reduction to reduced graphene oxide and I use UV-Vis spectrophotometer to measure their absorbance. However I notice that each time after the measurement some precipitate will stick on the wall of the cuvette. Does anyone know how to clean it?
Dear Jing Ye Tee ;
The best way is to clean it with Deionized water by bath sonication as reported in the reference;
Article A Manufacturing Perspective on Graphene Dispersions
You can try different acids like HNO3 H2SO4 or mixture of them.
Also you may try to burn it about 400C for about 10 min in air, I tried that for carbon black successfully.
Mixing a surfactant with DI water into your cuvette. Then put the cuvette into an ultrasonic bath for half an hour. You then rinse the cuvette using a solvent such as aceton and IPA.
Ideally,, you need to use different materials solutions with different cuvettes to avoid cross contamination .
You may consider a mixed acid solution of conc. H2SO4 and conc. HNO3 (2:1 vol / vol) with added KClO3 (room temperature; ≥ 1 h).
a mild solution of muriatic acid will be helpful in this case wash with it and then with mild ethanol wash again with distilled water further wipe it off with dry cloth
Dear Jing, since GO is hydrophilic, you can clean it through sonication in ultrasonic bath but if doesn't work out, put a piece of cotton wool inside the cuvette and try to rub it to the walls using the tip of a spatula or a pipette. Afterward, sonicate the cuvette in DI water for a few minutes to make sure that all of the GO sheets are totally removed. Be careful not to scratch the cuvette walls when you use spatula.
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