Preparation and characterization of partially reduced graphene oxide aerogels doped with transition metal ions

Abstract

This work presents the preparation and characterization of pristine and transition metal doped partially reduced graphene oxide aerogels. The step-by-step preparation of aerogels from graphene oxide with an assistance of VCl3, CrCl3, FeCl2·4H2O, CoCl2, NiCl2 and CuCl2 chlorides as reducing agents is shown and explained. The influence of reducing agents on the structural and magnetic properties of prepared aerogels is investigated. The use of electron paramagnetic resonance in purification during synthesis of GO and characterization afterwards is shown. It was found that VCl3 was the strongest reducing agent leading to the formation of the most dense reduced graphene oxide aerogel, whereas vanadium is visible in EPR spectrum in form of V4+ complex as a VO2+ groups.