New approach for the reduction of graphene oxide with triphenylphosphine dihalide

Abstract

We developed a one-flask method for the thermal reduction of graphene oxide (GO) with triphenylphosphine dihalide (Ph3PX2) at 180 degrees C. Our approach offers a potential to cost-effective mass-production of graphene nanosheets under mild and environmentally friendly conditions and to avoid the use of strong acids or reducing agents. Significantly, this reduced graphene oxide (rGO) by utilizing a Ph3PX2 reductant has a C/O ratio higher than 15 and an electrical conductivity of 400 S cm (1), which indicate that this synthetic method allows us to achieve graphene nanosheets with high quality when comparing with previous reduction methods.