Water mediated electrochemical conversion of PMMA and other organic residues into graphene and carbon materials

Abstract

This paper proposes a new thermal, electrical, and water assisted reaction (TEAWAR) technique to convert PMMA and organic residues into graphene and carbonaceous materials. Graphene and other carbon based materials have attracted considerable research interest due to their unique and enhanced properties. Graphene is a particularly promising material for electronic and sensing applications, although preparation is cumbersome requiring high vacuum and other sophisticated facilities to produce quality graphene layers. Graphene and other carbon based materials are commonly prepared from organic and polymer precursors under high thermal conditions. This paper proposes a facile method to prepare graphene and other carbonaceous materials from poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) polymer. PMMA is converted into graphene using a PMMA coated conducting substrate as one electrode in a two electrode electrochemical cell with water electrolyte, where conversion success depends on applied potential, time, temperature, and PMMA layer thickness. We converted PMMA coated on conducting substrates into graphene using 200 V potential for more than 1 h at 50 °C. This technique's suitability for organic residues conversion into carbon was also tested and found to be feasible to convert onion peel and other waste materials into carbon. Converted graphene was applied for photosensing and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) applications. The formed graphene exhibited good catalytic property comparable to various graphene related materials.