Large scale synthesis of reduced graphene oxide using ferrocene and HNO3

Herein, a simple, cheap and easily scaled-up procedure to obtain reduced graphene oxide from exfoliated graphene oxide using ferrocene and HNO3 is reported. Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies show increased number of sp2 domains in the rGO. The rGO shows specific surface area of ∼369 m2 g−1 and is stable till 700 °C. The measured specific capacitance of rGO is 106.5 F/g ensures that the rGO is promising material for electrochemical double layer capacitors. The magnetic hysteresis loop of rGO reveals diamagnetic behavior. The reduction mechanism for the synthesis of rGO using ferrocene and HNO3 has been proposed. We hope this approach might facilitate scalable production of high-quality rGO sheets which could lead to future industrial graphene based devices for various applications.