Author(s)

Nangamso Nathaniel Nyangiwe^1*, Mohammed Khenfouch^1,2*, Force Tefo Thema^1,2, Kenneth Nukwa^1,2, Lebogang Kotsedi^1,2, Malik Maaza^1,2

¹NANOsciences African NETwork (NANOAFNET), iThemba LABS-National Research Foundation of South Africa, Somerset West, South Africa.
²UNESCO UNISA Africa Chair in Nanosciences-Nanotechnology, College of Graduate Studies, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa.

It is universally known that the preparation of high quality graphene on a large scale and in a cost-effective manner is essential for many technological applications. Graphene oxide (GO) has emerged as the precursor of choice for bulk production of graphene-based materials, as it can be synthesized from inexpensive graphite powders. In this paper, a simple method is described for reduction of GO solution by a free and green irradiation based technique. The majority of oxygen-containing functional groups of GO are removed by sun light. This methodology provides an effective way to quantitatively produce high quality graphene sheets. This paper presents irradiation by sun light of synthesized graphene oxide nano-flakes prepared by Hummer’s method. These nano-flakes have been successfully reduced while the dynamic of this irradiation process is discussed. The irradiated nano-flakes of graphene oxide have been investigated using X-Ray diffraction, ATR-FTIR and UV-Vis-NIR.

Graphene, Graphene Oxide, Nano-Flakes, Sun Light Irradiation

Nyangiwe, N. , Khenfouch, M. , Thema, F. , Nukwa, K. , Kotsedi, L. and Maaza, M. (2015) Free-Green Synthesis and Dynamics of Reduced Graphene Sheets via Sun Light Irradiation. Graphene, 4, 54-61. doi: 10.4236/graphene.2015.43006.