Study on the Preparation of GO and RGO b

Aluminum is produced in chemical electrolysis by the Hall–Heroult process using carbon-based materials in electrodes (cathode and anode). The amorphous calcined petroleum coke is normally used as the carbon material. During the electrolysis of alumina, a voltage drop of about 0.15–0.25 V occurs due to the formation of gas bubbles at the anode which therefore reduces the electrolysis reaction kinetics. To improve the electrolysis efficiency, graphite material is partly used in both the cathode and anode. To further improve the efficiency of the electrolysis, the graphite may be replaced by graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) because of their outstanding electrical, mechanical and chemical properties. This study was carried out to produce GO and RGO from natural high-purity graphite (HPG) by applying oxidation and reduction processes through chemical and mechanical exfoliation processes. In the chemical exfoliation process, multi-metal alloys of zinc, iron, aluminum and silicon are used as the reductant instead of using hazardous chemical materials. The morphology, structure and composition of HPG, GO and RGO have been characterized using different analytical techniques. The number of layers of the GO and RGO samples has been determined based on the characterization data and found to be four to five layers.