Synthesis of graphene oxide via electrochemical process: A short review towards flexible synthesis method

Abstract

Graphene-based material for instance graphene oxide (GO) and reduce graphene oxide (rGO) emerge as unique frontier material that have been widely applied in various application such as energy conversion, nanotechnology as well as oil and gas industry. It properties such as high mechanical properties and enhance electrical conductor have made this material outperforms existing frontier material thus features large-scale commercialization opportunity. At present, electrochemical method has attracted much attention in synthesizing graphene-based material (GO/rGO) due to its green technology (environmentally friendly process), low cost and enhanced efficiency. Nevertheless, based on contemporary studies, different demand in GO/rGO quality requires different parametric setup and characterization analyses subsequently provides significant challenge to identify a standard design of electrochemical that can produce various quality of GO/rGO. This inflexibility affects the progress of commercial scale-up thus entails a systematic review related to various aspects of electrochemical studies for instance parametric analysis, product/material characterization and applications. A parametric analysis includes electrolyte concentration, type of electrolyte, temperature, synthesis time, cathode and anode materials and voltage demand. While, for product characterization, several methods are evaluated for instance Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy (RAMAN). This review paper is beneficial to the researcher and industries as a rapid guideline towards the flexible mass-production of GO/rGO via electrochemical method. Finally, future research should be conducted on the flexible design of unit operation (i.e. reactor) to ensure process feasibility.