Physicochemical characterization of a low-oxygen composite based on chitosan and electrochemically exfoliated graphene

Chitosan and graphene composites are widely used as biological scaffolds. Aside from environmental concerns related to the Hummer's synthesis the composite obtained contains significant amounts of oxygen and other residues, besides the agglomerate formation. In this work, a few-layer graphene obtained by electrochemically exfoliation of graphite was designed and made up with chitosan forming a uniform composite showing a low oxygen content. The amide group formation and crystallographic data were used as an index of composite dispersion. Electrochemically exfoliated graphene presented higher crystallinity degree and uniform crystallite size conferring a homogeneous dispersion of the nanofiller in the chitosan matrix. Chemical interactions between the electrochemically exfoliated graphene and chitosan allowed a high carbon C/O ratio of 14.63 shown by XPS analysis, which gives the high conductivity value, desirable for several purposes.