A Facile Synthesis and Thermal Properties of Graphene Oxide-Mischmetal Oxide Nanocomposites

In this work, we have reported the facile synthesis, characterizations and thermal analyses of Graphene Oxide (GO) and Mischmetal Oxide (MmO) composites. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report for graphene oxide and mischmetal oxide composites. The elemental compositional analysis of as-synthesized mischmetal oxides are O-16.10 wt.%, Gd-02.80 wt.%, La-20.60 wt.%, Ce-41.10 wt.%, Pr-03.80 wt.% and Nd-15.40 wt.%. The SEM analysis reveals that the mischmetal oxide particles are anchored on the large surface area of graphene oxide. Thermal stability and activation kinetics of graphene oxide and GO-MmO composites are studied by thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The DSC results reveal that the initial reaction temperature and activation energies are decreased for GO-MmO composites compared with graphene oxide. The activation energies (calculated by Kissinger equation) are 107.25 kJ/mol and 137.61 kJ/mol for GO-MmO composites and graphene oxide, respectively. Improving the thermal stability and decreasing the activation energy are due to the synergistic effect of mischmetal oxide.