One-pot redox synthesis of graphene from waste graphite of spent lithium ion batteries with peracetic acid assistance

Abstract

In order to meet increasingly urgent application requirements for energy storage and aviation materials, it is necessary to facilitate the rapid, low-cost, large-scale preparation of high-quality graphene. In this study, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was prepared from the waste graphite of spent lithium batteries by a one-pot redox reaction using a ternary system contains sulfuric acid, potassium permanganate and peracetic acid. Peroxyacetic acid was first used in the system to effect oxidation and reduction preparation of graphene to avoid additional reduction steps. XRD, XPS, SEM, TEM, FT-IR, and Raman spectroscopy analyses showed that reduced graphene oxide samples synthesized from waste graphite (L-rGO) and commercial graphite (C-rGO) have similar microscopic morphologies and structural characteristics. Therefore, lithium ion battery waste graphite is a good potential resource for the preparation of high-quality rGO. The carbon-to-oxygen ratios of L-rGO and C-rGO were 1.79 and 4.25, respectively, indicating that peracetic acid effectively reduced graphene oxide to rGO. The yield of rGO was calculated to be 61.2%, which means that rGO can be produced on a large scale using this method.