Low intensity-ultrasonic irradiation for highly efficient, eco-friendly and fast synthesis of graphene oxide

High quality graphene oxide (GO) with low layer number (less than five layers) and large inter-layer space was produced via a new and efficient method using environmentally friendly, fast and economic ultrasonic radiation. The ultrasonic method neither generated any toxic gas nor required any NaNO₃, which have been the main drawbacks of the Hummers methods. The major obstacles of the recently reported improved Hummers method for GO synthesis, such as high reaction temperature (50°C) and long reaction time (12h), were successfully solved using a low intensity-ultrasonic bath for 45min at 30°C, which significantly reduced the reaction time and energy consumption for GO synthesis. Furthermore, ultrasonic GO exhibited higher surface area, higher crystallinity and higher oxidation efficiency with many hydrophilic groups, fewer sheets with higher spaces between them, a higher sp³/sp² ratio, and more uniform size distribution than classically prepared GO. Therefore, the new ultrasonic method could be applicable for the sustainable and large-scale production of GO. The production yield of the ultrasonic-assisted GO was 1.25-fold greater than the GO synthesized with the improved Hummers method. Furthermore, the required production cost based on total energy consumption for ultrasonic GO was only 6.5% of that for classical GO.