[Brett 804]

Hi all,

I am currently conducting my final year thesis in Chemical Engineering assessing the thermal properties of graphene based nanofluids and part of this study is to characterise two graphene samples.

I have a sample of reduced graphene oxide (23 wt. % - no details of the production method) in n-butyl acetate that I would like to analyse using an ATR-FTIR spectroscope. The sample is more like a "paste" and so getting an adequate quantity of dried powder for analysis will not be an issue.

My plan is to wash the reduced graphene oxide using ethanol that will remove the n-butyl acetate (which needs to be removed for the FT-IR analysis) and dry out without heating nor leaving any residue. I am wondering if the dried sample will be stable enough between drying and analysing (about 1-2 hours) without any signifiant changes to the chemical structure?

I also have a sample of graphene oxide suspended in water (0.4 wt. %) that I will need to analyse. This is a much more dilute sample and my plan is to allow this to simply evaporate and collect the remaining powder. This is not very time efficient but my understanding is that heating the sample may affect the graphene oxide structure.

If anyone has any insights or suggestions I would appreciate hearing your thoughts.

Regards

Brett