Despite intensive research on graphene, large-scale production of high-quality graphene oxide/graphite oxide (GO) is challenging. The labour-intensive oxidative mechanical exfoliation is frequently found to be the rate-limiting step. In this study, we report ways to improve GO quality and yield by modifying two promising scalable process variants of Hummers method, viz., Kim’s and Tour’s method for GO production. To achieve a desired crystallite size with minimal defects, we report possible adjustments to the exfoliation process by evaluating the oxidation mechanism against GO’s structural integrity. The modifications such as altering the quantity of the oxidant, the duration of ultrasonic-assisted oxidation and the order of washing cycles improved the oxidation efficiency resulting in yield enhancement of defect-free GO. The structure and quality of the synthesized GO were found to depend on the rigorousness of washing cycles and the quantity of oxidant used rather than on the nature of the oxidant alone.

尽管对石墨烯进行了深入研究，但大规模生产高质量的氧化石墨烯/氧化石墨 (GO) 具有挑战性。经常发现劳动密集型氧化机械剥离是限速步骤。在这项研究中，我们报告了通过修改 Hummers 方法的两个有希望的可扩展工艺变体来提高 GO 质量和产量的方法，即 Kim 和 Tour 的 GO 生产方法。为了达到具有最小缺陷的所需微晶尺寸，我们通过评估氧化机制与 GO 的结构完整性来报告对剥离过程的可能调整。改变氧化剂的量、超声辅助氧化的持续时间和洗涤循环的顺序等修改提高了氧化效率，从而提高了无缺陷 GO 的产率。