Green Reduction of Graphene Oxide Using Tea Leaves Extract with Applications to Lead Ions Removal from Water

摘要

The synthesis of graphene which is one atomic thick sheet of carbon in large scale production, low cost and eco-friendly method is a big challenge today. The reduction of Graphene Oxide (GO) is the most important step in the chemical method and it is generally achieved by strong, hazardous and highly toxic chemicals. In this research, the black tea leaves extract was used as a green reducing agent for reduction of GO instead of using chemicals. The GO was prepared based on Hummers method and then treated with black tea leaves extract. The effect of treatment time and concentration of tea extract were studied. The GO and rGO were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis.