Synthesis and characterization of Graphene produced from Iraqi date syrup

Abstract

Graphene is a mono layer of hexagonal honey structure of carbon atoms. Iraqi date syrup was used as a carbon source for synthesis Graphene by expanded dehydration method, in which using of concentrated sulfuric acid as dehydration agent. The method name refers to expanded dehydration because of the increasing in volume with dehydration reaction. Characterization the prepared Graphene was done by FT-IR, XRD, SEM, AFM and UV-Visible techniques and compared with previous work. The final product was obtained by annealing at 600 °C or in other word thermal reduction to reduce all oxide groups combined with structure.  Graphene XRD pattern shows wide peak at 002 plane centered at 2θ =23.758°, and d-spacing = 3.37 Å. AFM image shows that prepared Graphene in Nano sheets form. The method exhibit production yield about 9% and this is relatively high in comparison with other Graphene preparation methods.