Size-controlled synthesis of graphene oxide sheets on a large scale using chemical exfoliation

Abstract

The synthesis of graphene oxide (GO) sheets with controlled size on a large scale was developed using chemical exfoliation by simply controlling the oxidation and exfoliation procedure. The GO samples prepared under different conditions, which all have excellent water dispersion, are characterized by thermal gravimetric analysis, Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. It is found that as longer oxidation times and more oxidants are used, the mean size of the GO sheets, which has a Gaussian distribution, decreases from ∼59,000 to ∼550 nm 2.