View Online PAPER www.rsc.org/materials | Journal of Materials Chemistry Reduction of graphite oxide using alcohols†‡ Daniel R. Dreyer,a Shanthi Murali,b Yanwu Zhu,b Rodney S. Ruoffb and Christopher W. Bielawski*a Received 17th August 2010, Accepted 27th September 2010 DOI: 10.1039/c0jm02704a A method for reducing graphite oxide using a variety of commercially available alcohols is described. The carbon products were found to exhibit high C : O ratios (up to 30 : 1, as determined by elemental combustion analysis), high conductivities (up to 4600 S mÀ1), and good specific capacitances (up to 35 F gÀ1) when tested as electrode materials in ultracapacitors. Introduction which detailed the use of hydroquinone as a reducing agent for graphene oxide.21,22 In these studies, it was surmised that Because of its remarkable electronic, optical, mechanical, and hydroquinone (a diol) was likely oxidized to quinone (a dike- catalytic properties, graphene has emerged as a material of great tone). Hence, we reasoned that other activated alcohols 1–9 interest. Although relatively few methods for preparing gra- (e.g., benzyl alcohol) may also undergo oxidation and ultimately phene on large scales have been demonstrated, one of the most reduce GO as well as graphene oxide in the process. Indeed, as promising is based on the chemical reduction of graphite oxide described herein, we have found that a variety of inexpensive, 10–12 (GO). Since Boehm and co-workers’ early report, methods relatively non-toxic alcohols effectively reduce GO and graphene 13,14 which reduce GO using various chemical reagents have been oxide, and afford carbon products with higher conductivities and central to the synthesis and manipulation of single- and multi- higher C : O ratios than those obtained using strong reductants 12 layered carbon species. Typically, strong reductants such as (e.g., hydrazine) that have been previously used for such 15 10 anhydrous hydrazine, hydrazine monohydrate, or sodium purposes (Scheme 1). borohydride16,17 are used to transform aqueous dispersions of GO or its exfoliated monolayer, graphene oxide, into a highly reduced material that resembles graphene. A persistent challenge Results and discussion surrounding these methodologies, however, is achieving high extents of reduction. It is known that GO exhibits a C : O ratio of In our initial report,1 we found that heating 200 wt% GO in approximately 2 : 118 and exposure of this material to one or benzyl alcohol (BnOH) for 24 h at 100 C under an atmosphere more of the aforementioned chemical reductants often affords of air resulted in partial reduction of the carbon material. The a carbon product with a C : O ratio as high as 15 : 1.12 Although C : O ratio increased from approximately 2 : 1 (measured for the pristine graphene should theoretically exhibit an infinite C : O GO starting material) to 7 : 1 in the product, as determined by Downloaded by University of Texas at Austin on 29 October 2010 ratio, recent calculations suggest that achieving ratios of 16 : 1 or elemental combustion analysis; likewise, the powder conductivity Published on 28 October 2010 http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/C0JM02704A higher may be difficult because of the relative inertness of the increased from 2  10À5 SmÀ1 to 15 S mÀ1, respectively, as partially reduced product.19 While combining the use of chemical measured by a two-point probe technique performed on powder reductants with thermal annealing has been shown to increase samples.10 Absorbances in the FT-IR spectrum attributable to the C : O ratio of the reduced product to 250 : 1 or higher,20 the O–H, C]O and epoxide groups in the starting material were multi-step procedures are required. Hence, the development of attenuated or completely disappeared, and the absorbances a convenient method that uses a safe and non-toxic reductant to associated with aromatic and olefinic species became distin- effectively reduce GO and graphene oxide in a single step is guishable in the isolated carbon product. As a further indicator warranted. that the GO was successfully reduced, the isolated product could Recently, we reported that GO may be used to catalyze the not be re-dispersed in water or other polar solvents, even upon oxidation of a variety of benzylic and aliphatic alcohols. In our prolonged sonication and heating.10 Despite these promising preliminary study, it was believed that atmospheric oxygen may results, neither the C : O ratio nor the powder conductivity of the have functioned as the terminal oxidant.1 Regardless, in light of reduced GO product were as high as has been demonstrated with these results, we envisioned that alcohols may serve as effective other reductants, such as hydrazine.10 However, the inherent reductants for GO. Further inspiration stemmed from reports advantages of this reduction method (e.g., low temperature, low cost, and relatively low toxicity) were encouraging and prompted us to explore the process in greater detail. a Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Texas at Our first modification of the aforementioned reduction Austin, 1 University Station, A5300, Austin, TX, 78712, USA. E-mail: [email protected]; Fax: +1-512-471-5884; Tel: +1-512-232-3889 method was to increase the volume of BnOH used. Decreasing bDepartment of Mechanical Engineering and the Texas Materials Institute, from 200 wt% of GO in benzyl alcohol to 10 wt% under other- 1 University Station, C2200, Austin, TX, 78712, USA wise identical conditions resulted in a product that exhibited † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Additional a C : O ratio of 15 : 1 and a conductivity of 2200 S mÀ1. The experimental details and characterization data. See DOI: 10.1039/c0jm02704a increase in volume of BnOH used in this variation of the ‡ This paper is part of a Journal of Materials Chemistry themed issue on reduction reaction proved to be important as it is believed that Chemically Modified Graphenes. Guest editor: Rod Ruoff. the oxidation process (and subsequently the reduction of the GO) This journal is ª The Royal Society of Chemistry 2010 J. Mater. Chem. View Online Scheme 1 The reduction of graphite oxide or graphene oxide using alcohols under mild conditions afforded highly reduced carbon products. may be catalytic in alcohol.1 As such, the use of small amounts of proceeds rapidly (minutes, upon heating) when hydrazine or BnOH may be insufficient to drive the reaction to completion; other strong reductants are used on aqueous dispersions of rather, excess reductant may be necessary to achieve maximal graphene oxide, the reduction of GO using BnOH was found to reduction. proceed much slower (hours). This sluggishness may afford In an effort to further improve the extent of reduction, aliquots opportunities for the reduced lamellae to restack in solution, of GO were heated in the presence of even larger volumes of GO forming small, graphite-like agglomerates, as supported by the and for longer periods of time. In particular, a mixture of 200 mg relatively large particles observed by scanning electron micros- of GO in 25 mL of BnOH (0.8 wt% GO) was stirred for 5 days at copy (SEM). These images (Fig. S12–S14, ESI†) showed thick, 100 C.x The resulting dispersion was then poured into ethanol to agglomerated particles on the order of tens of microns in diam- facilitate precipitation, and the product was collected via filtra- eter, rather than the isolated monolayers (either lamellar or tion and dried under vacuum.{ The conductivity of this material crumpled) often observed when other reductants are used. Since was measured to be 4600 S mÀ1 (Table 1) and the C : O ratio was both the oxidized and reduced products were found to form found to be 30 : 1. To the best of our knowledge, this C : O ratio appreciably stable dispersions in BnOH, transient exfoliation is the highest reported for any material obtained via the chemical followed by reduction and agglomeration may be occurring reduction of GO or graphene oxide. In further support of an during the reaction. However, we cannot discount the possibility effective reduction reaction, FT-IR analysis of the BnOH- that the alcohols intercalated into the stacked structure of GO (as reduced product showed a significantly attenuated peak at has previously been demonstrated24), reduced the lamellae 3400 cmÀ1 (Fig. 1), which was consistent with a near-complete without effectively exfoliating the carbon, and then were expelled disappearance of hydroxyl functionality, as well as water. as their oxidized analogues (e.g., aldehydes and acids). However, the surface area of the product was found to be rela- As shown in Fig. 2, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) tively low (9.6 m2 gÀ1 as determined using the BET method;23k see revealed that the recovered, BnOH-reduced GO was largely Fig. S1–S5 and Table S2, ESI†) and comparable to the surface unexfoliated and exhibited a lamellar morphology (consistent area measured for (non-reduced) GO as well as materials prepared by the reduction of graphene oxide with hydroquinone 22 Downloaded by University of Texas at Austin on 29 October 2010 or NaBH . ** 4 Table 1 Characterization of the products obtained by reducing graphite a Published on 28 October 2010 http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/C0JM02704A We believe the origin of the low surface area observed in the oxide using various alcohols product of the aforementioned reduction reaction may be understood in terms of the kinetics, as well as the compatibility of MeOH EtOH iPrOH BnOH GO and reduced graphite oxide with BnOH. While the reduction BET surface 5.8 35.9 10.4 9.6 areab/m2 gÀ1 C : O ratioc 4.0 : 1 6.0 : 1 6.9 : 1 30 : 1 x While such prolonged reaction periods may not be practical, this Powder 3.2  10À5 1.8  10À4 1019 4600 experiment was designed to explore the potential of using alcohols as conductivityd/S mÀ1 non-conventional reductants of GO.