To break the traditional thinking green preparation of graphene oxide

graphene oxide is an important graphene derivative, as the first major graphene precursor macro preparation, in recent years, due to its many unique graphene differs physicochemical properties and more broad application prospects attention has been paid. Because of the large number of oxygen-containing functional groups, graphene oxide having good dispersibility in water, and easy to assemble and functional, it is widely used in the preparation of multi-functional separation, high conductivity high-strength fibers, aerogels, and other lightweight superelastic kinds of functional materials, and show good potential applications in electrochemical energy storage, catalysis, bio-pharmaceuticals, composite materials. Currently, the graphene oxide prepared is carried out primarily by the release of graphite oxide. Recently, the Shenyang Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Science National Research Center for Advanced Materials Carbon Materials Research Department proposed a new method for electrolytic oxidation of water to break the 150 years of traditional thinking oxidation of graphite by strong oxidants to achieve a graphene oxide safety, green, ultra-fast preparation. Firstly, the intercalated graphite in the concentrated sulfuric acid, and then oxidized to the intercalated graphite in dilute sulfuric acid. And radical trapping oxygen isotope tracer experiments show that oxygen in the graphene oxide mainly from water, a large number of highly reactive oxygen free radical reaction with the graphite of the electrolysis of water to generate graphene oxide in the electrolyte. The reaction is almost no loss of sulfuric acid, without generating other substances, it can be repeated for the electrochemical reaction. The study also found that the oxidation rate of graphene oxide prepared electrolytic water faster than the conventional method of oxidizing more than 100 times, and the resulting material is similar to the conventional methods, continuous and easily prepared. The method effectively solves the preparation of graphene oxide explosion hazard facing long-term, long period of environmental pollution and response issues, it is expected to significantly reduce production costs, to promote the industrial application of graphene oxide.