The Preparation of Graphite Oxide Controlled by Optimum Oxidation Potential with any Rejected Nitro-Oxidizer

Abstract

Nitro-oxidizers (nitric acid-27S, nitrogen tetroxide and mixed nitrogen oxide) are common liquid oxidants widely used in liquid rockets and missile weapons. How to deal with large quantities of scrapped nitro-oxidizers is a complex, costly and dangerous project. We pretreated it with hydrogen peroxide (H2O[Formula: see text] and converted the active oxidant component of nitro-oxidizers into nitric acid, which can be used as oxidant source to prepare graphite oxide from natural graphite. The comprehensive oxidation ability of the reaction system can be effectively controlled by adding different volumes of H2O2, and the oxidation ability can be expressed by the redox potential of the system. Combined with FT-IR, Raman and XRD characterization analysis, the optimal redox potential interval, [1700, 1800][Formula: see text]mV, has been determined for the synthesis of graphite oxide. With the help of data interpolation and function nonlinear fitting and the initial potential of rejected nitro-oxidants obtained, the composition ratio of nitric acid and nitrogen tetroxide (N2O[Formula: see text] has been preliminarily determined with the optimum amount of H2O2. Furthermore, the optimum oxidizing atmosphere for the synthesis of graphite oxide can be formed in spite of a wide range of concentrations of oxidant components, and the resulting graphite oxide has been proven to be a qualified and effective product.