THE ROLE THE PURITY OF CHEMICAL REAGENTS HAS ON THE CHEMICAL AND STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF GRAPHITE OXIDE AND THERMALLY REDUCED GRAPHENE OXIDE

Abstract

A study into how the purity of the chemical reagents (H2SO4 and KMnO4) influenced the chemical and structural properties of graphite oxide and graphene oxide reduced by low temperature, was carried out in order to develop low cost and viable industrial processes for the large-scale production of graphene-based materials. The samples were analyzed and explained on the basis of the following characterization techniques: Raman spectroscopy, SEM, TEM, FTIR, elemental analysis (EDX), X-ray diffraction, TGA, and, particle size analyzer. Data about the features of the graphene-based materials enable it to be determined whether, high purity chemicals normally supplied in low quantities at a high price, are or not needed in certain applications for the final graphene-based materials. In other words, in this paper how the impurities present in chemical reagents could influence the characteristics of the final products is analyzed).