Rapid microwave reduction of electrochemically-derived graphene oxide for high-crystalline graphene membranes

Abstract

Electrochemical oxidation of graphite has emerged as a sustainable and straightforward approach for the scalable synthesis of graphene oxide (GO). However, the reduction of electrochemically-derived GO (EGO) has received limited attention. Here, we present a rapid microwave reduction process specifically tailored for EGO, which exhibits distinct properties compared with chemically-derived GO (CGO). Unlike CGO membranes that require several minutes of microwave irradiation for reduction, EGO membranes can be transformed into high-crystalline graphene membranes (HCGM) in just 3 s, without pre-treatment or additional triggers. The resulting HCGM displays a significant aromatic domain size (∼100..