High Efficient Reduction of Graphene Oxide via Nascent Hydrogen at Room Temperature

To develop a green and efficient method to synthesize graphene in relative milder conditions is prerequisite for graphene applications. A chemical reducing method has been developed to high efficiently reduce graphene oxide (GO) using Fe₂O₃ and NH₃BH₃ as catalyst and reductants, respectively. During the process, environmental and strong reductive nascent hydrogen were generated surrounding the surface of GO sheets by catalyst hydrolysis reaction of NH₃BH₃ and were used for reduction of GO. The reduction process was studied by ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectrum. The structure and morphology of the reduced GO were characterized with scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Compared to metal (Mg/Fe/Zn/Al) particles and acid system which also use nascent hydrogen to reduce GO, this method exhibited higher reduction efficiency (43.6%). Also the reduction was carried out at room temperature condition, which is environmentally friendly. As a supercapacitor electrode, the reversible capacity of reduced graphene oxide was 113.8 F g^-1 at 1 A g^-1 and the capacitance retention still remained at 90% after 200 cycles. This approach provides a new method to reduce GO with high reduction efficiency by green reductant.