Facile ultrasonic aided green reduction of graphene oxide by Doum palm fruit

Abstract

This work describes a novel, facile, green, and one-step sonochemical method for reducing graphene oxide (GO) using Doum palm fruit. The successful transformation of GO into reduced graphene oxide (RGO) is confirmed via several techniques. FTIR confirmed the removal of most oxygen functional groups from GO and conjugation between Doum and derived reduced graphene oxide (GRGO). From XRD, the GO sharp peak was disappeared upon reduction and replaced by a wide broad peak. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies revealed an increase of the (C/O) ratio in GRGO compared to GO. The crumpled morphology of GO occurs upon reduction noticed from HRTEM. Corrugation and cracks in GO sheets are observed after the reduction process, FESEM revealed. The thermal stability of GRGO is higher than that of GO. These findings illustrate that this method is promising for the mass production biosynthesizing nanoscale oxides conjugated to reduced GO for medicinal and biological applications.

Keywords:

• Doum
• graphene oxide
• sonication
• green reduction
• graphene

Acknowledgments

The authors extend their appreciation to the deanship of scientific research at Taif University for funding this work through researchers supporting project number (TURSP-2020/27), Taif University, Saudi Arabia.