Facile Green Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide in L-cysteine Solution and its Structural, Morphological, Optical and Thermal Characteristics

Abstract The current research reports a cost-effective, efficient ad green reducing agent (L-cysteine) to reduce the graphene oxide (GO) for large-scale reduced graphene oxide (rGO) synthesis. Fabrication of rGO was performed by the reduction of GO using different concentrations from L-cysteine. Synthesis of rGO was noticed by change in color of GO solution from brown to black. For additional confirmation, the structural, morphological, optical and thermal properties of synthesized rGO were analyzed using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) atomic force microscopy (AFM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer (UV-Vis). The XRD, FTIR and EDS results showed the oxygen-containing groups such as hydroxyl, carbonyl, and epoxy. The UV-Vis spectrum for GO exhibited an absorbance peak at 233 nm which undergoes a red shift of the absorbance peak to 265, 273 and 278 nm due to reduction of GO to rGO using 5, 8 and 10 mg/L of L-cysteine respectively. XRD patterns demonstrated the disappearance of the characteristics peak of GO (11.1) and reinforced this appearance of peak around ~26, indicating the efficient reduction of GO and restoration of graphene sp 2 hybridized structure. Furthermore, FTIR spectroscopy showed the gradual disappearance of band at 1745 cm -1 assigned to GO as L-cysteine concentration was increased. The thermal stability of the GO was much lower than those of all the rGO powders where the increased concentration of L-cysteine resulted in enhanced more thermal stability and higher C/O ratio in rGO. The SEM images confirmed the successful structurally exfoliation of two dimensional rGO sheets and showed the folded, curled and flake-like morphology of the graphene nanosheets.