Structural Evolution of Graphene Oxide and Its Thermal Stability During High Temperature Sintering

Abstract

The thermal reduction of graphene oxide (GO) was performed by a tube furnace at different temperatures, and its structure evolution was investigated in detail. The results showed that the oxygen-containing functional groups on the carbon plane surface of GO gradually decomposed as the temperature increase, and the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) powder was obtained at 800 °C. Then, rGO powder was sintered under 30 MPa at 1 800 °C using spark plasma sintering (SPS) and hot-pressing (HP) to evaluate its structural stability at high temperatures. The defect densities of rGO were reduced after high-temperature sintering. The edge flatness and sp ² hybrid carbon plane structure were reconstructed effectively. These results demonstrate that the lamellar structure of rGO maintains the structural integrity during high-temperature sintering without obvious deterioration, which provides experimental and theoretical supports for GO reinforced ceramics.

Keywords

graphene oxide / ceramics / structure evolution / thermal stability / sintering

References

[1] Lee CG, Wei XD, Kysar JW, et al. Measurement of the Elastic Properties and Intrinsic Strength of Monolayer Graphene[J]. Science, 2008, 321: 385-388.

[2] Su RS, Li YC, Jang HL, et al. Graphene-based Materials for Tissue Engineering[J]. Adv. Drug Delivery Rev., 2016, 105: 255-274.

[3] Stoller MD, Park SJ, Zhu YW, et al. Graphene-based Ultracapacitors[J]. Nano Lett., 2008, 8(10): 3498-3502.

[4] Bolotin KI, Sikes KJ, Jiang Z, et al. Ultrahigh Electron Mobility in Suspended Graphene[J]. Solid State Commun., 2008, 146: 351-355.

[5] Singh V, Joung D, Zhai L, et al. Graphene Based Materials: Past, Present and Future[J]. Prog. Mater. Sci., 2011, 56: 1178-1271.

[6] Balandin AA, Ghosh S, Bao WZ, et al. Superior Thermal Conductivity of Single-layer Graphene[J]. Nano Lett., 2008, 8(3): 902-907.

[7] Novoselov KS, Geim AK, Morozov SV, et al. Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films[J]. Science, 2004, 306: 666-669.

[8] Sedlák R, Kovalčíková A, Múdra E, et al. Boron Carbide/Graphene Platelet Ceramics with Improved Fracture Toughness and Electrical Conductivity[J]. J. Eur. Ceram. Soc., 2017, 37(12): 3773-3780.

[9] Chen C, Han XC, Shen HH, et al. Preferentially Oriented SiC/Graphene Composites for Enhanced Mechanical and Thermal Properties[J]. Ceram. Int., 2020, 46(14): 23173-23179.

[10] Tan YQ, Luo H, Zhang HB, et al. Graphene Nanoplatelet Reinforced Boron Carbide Composites with High Electrical and Thermal Conductivity[J]. J. Eur. Ceram. Soc., 2016, 36(11): 2679-2687.

[11] Pei SF, Cheng HM. The Reduction of Graphene Oxide[J]. Carbon, 2012, 50(9): 3210-3228.

[12] Alexander R, Murthy TSRC, Ravikanth KV, et al. Effect of Graphene Nano-platelet Reinforcement on the Mechanical Properties of Hot Pressed Boron Carbide Based Composite[J]. Ceram. Int., 2018, 44(8): 9830-9838.

[13] Wang AY, Liu C, Hu LX, et al. Effects of Processing on Mechanical Properties of B₄C-graphene Composites Fabricated by Hot Pressing[J]. Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 2021, 808: 140872.

[14] An YM, Han JC, Zhang XH, et al. Bioinspired High Toughness Graphene/ZrB₂ Hybrid Composites with Hierarchical Architectures Spanning Several Length Scales[J]. Carbon, 2016, 107: 209-216.

[15] Huang QW, Ai RM, Bai WH, et al. Refinement of TiB₂ Powders with High-speed Planetary Mill and Its Effect on TiB₂ Sinterability[J]. J. Wuhan Univ. Technol. — Mater. Sci. Ed., 2021, 36(3): 331-337.

[16] Hummers WS, Offeman RE. Preparation of Graphitic Oxide[J]. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1958, 80(6): 1339-1339.

[17] Ai FR, Zhong Y, Hu XW, et al. Characterization on the Exfoliation Degree of Graphite Oxide into Graphene Oxide by UV-visible Spectroscopy[J]. J. Wuhan Univ. Technol. -Mater. Sci. Ed., 2016, 31(3): 515-518.

[18] Ferrari AC. Raman Spectroscopy of Graphene and Graphite: Disorder, Electron-phonon Coupling, Doping and Nonadiabatic Effects[J]. Solid State Commun., 2007, 143: 47-57.

[19] Cançado LG, Jorio A, Ferreira EHM, et al. Quantifying Defects in Graphene via Raman Spectroscopy at Different Excitation Energies[J]. Nano Lett., 2011, 11(8): 3190-3196.

[20] Qiu Y, Collin F, Hurt RH, et al. Thermochemistry and Kinetics of Graphite Oxide Exothermic Decomposition for Safety in Large-scale Storage and Processing[J]. Carbon, 2016, 96: 20-28.

[21] Zhang YP, Li D, Tan XJ, et al. High Quality Graphene Sheets from Graphene Oxide by Hot-pressing[J]. Carbon, 2013, 54: 143-148.

[22] Zhang HL, Li JF, Yao KF, et al. Spark Plasma Sintering and Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Nanotube Bulk Materials[J]. J. Appl. Phys., 2005, 97(11): 114310

[23] Ramanathan T, Abdala AA, Stankovich S, et al. Functionalized Graphene Sheets for Polymer Nanocomposites[J]. Nat. Nanotechnol., 2008, 3(6): 327-331.

[24] Stankovich S, Dikin DA, Dommett GHB, et al. Graphene-based Composite Materials[J]. Nature, 2006, 442(2): 282