Lithium Aluminum Hydride as Reducing Agent for Chemically Reduced Graphene Oxides

Chemical reduction of graphene oxide is one of the main routes of preparation for large quantities of graphenes. A wide range of reducing agents was described for this task, such as hydroquinone, ascorbic acid, saccharides, proteins, hydrazine, or sodium borohydride. With exception of sodium borohydride and hydrazine, no “standard” organic chemistry agents have been described for reduction of graphene oxides. Lithium aluminum hydride (LAH) is a very powerful reducing agent frequently used in organic synthetic methodologies to convert several types of oxygen containing carbon moieties with a well-known reduction mechanism. Here, we describe, for the first time, the use of LAH toward the reduction of graphene oxide and compare its reduction strength to that of hydrazine and sodium borohydride, which are generally adopted in such application. We show that LAH is far more efficient in reducing oxygen functionalities present on graphene oxide. This is a step forward toward applicability of “standard” organic chemistry reducing agents for reduction of graphene oxides.