Preparation of graphene oxide from coal

Abstract

Nanomaterial synthesis from low-cost precursors is a highly desirable approach for bulk application in material science and technology. Among the various nanomaterials, graphene is a single layer two-dimensional honeycomb carbon nanomaterial. Graphene /or graphene oxide is widely utilized in material science, bio-medicine technology as a sensor, cellular imaging, and many more due to its surface area, nanoscale size, and electrical charge properties, etc. Coal is the most abundant combustible energy source. Although, coal possesses a very complex structure, however, it consists significant amount of polyaromatic structure. Due to the presence of an inherent polyaromatic structure, coal becomes a promising candidate to replace graphite as a precursor material for the production of graphene / or graphene oxide. Herein, a facile cost-effective approach is reported to synthesize graphene oxide from low-grade coal.