Synthesis of Graphene-Type Materials from Agricultural Residues

Preparation of graphene oxides (GO) from sugarcane bagasse and wheat straw is reported in this paper. Both of the crop residues are converted to graphite using low-temperature ferrocene method and high-temperature catalytic graphitization using iron and nickel nitrate powder. Iron nitrate was found out to be the superior catalyst compared to nickel nitrate at carbonization temperatures of 900 and 1200 °C. Improved Hummer’s method is applied for the synthesis of graphene oxide from graphite powders. The GO powders synthesized from wheat straw along with iron nitrate at 900 °C and sugarcane bagasse along with iron nitrate at 1200 °C were observed to be the best, while the graphite prepared using ferrocene method could not be converted to GO as confirmed by XRD, FTIR, RAMAN results, and the presence of oxygen in graphene oxide is determined by morphological studies using FESEM and TEM techniques.