Comparative Study Among Graphene Oxide Structures and Their Influence on Electrical Conductivity

Since graphene and its derivatives discovery, the desire to develop accessible production methods and obtain high-quality materials to enable its production on an industrial scale has increased research interest in this field, and in techniques aiming a deep characterization of these materials. Based on this, the present study proposes a great reduction of time in the process steps of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) production. By using micronized graphite as the precursor, the exfoliation and reduction time were reduced, 67 and 75% respectively, without compromising rGO properties. Regarding the number of layers, the carbon structures presented results between 7 (rGO) and 10 (graphene oxide), being the best result of 8 layers after 10 minutes of exfoliation. Moreover, the electrical conductivity methodology proposed in this article was based on statistical analysis. The electrical conductivity of suspensions with 0.5% w/w of carbon structures was between 3400 and 3700 µS.cm^-1. Thus, this study opens the way for obtaining graphene oxides by the modified Hummers’ method and shorter process time in exfoliation and reduction steps using micronized graphite as the precursor, and it also provides a methodology to determine the electrical conductivity of suspensions to assist these materials characterization without prior elimination of the solvent.

Keywords:
Graphene oxide; reduced graphene oxide; Hummers’ method; electrical conductivity