One-pot electrochemical synthesis of graphene by the exfoliation of graphite powder in sodium dodecyl sulfate and its decoration with platinum nanoparticles for methanol oxidation

We demonstrate a method which directly grows large areas of graphene on carbon paper and glassy carbon (GC) substrates from graphite powder and anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate, assisted electrochemical exfoliation. The electrochemically reduced graphene has been carefully characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electrochemical techniques. Particularly, SEM images show enhanced growth of graphene structures formed of ‘urchin’ objects. The CV spectra illustrate that a variety of the oxygen-containing functional groups has been thoroughly removed from the graphite plane via electrochemical reduction. Potential peak (Ep) of graphene electrode in [Fe(CN)6]3−/4− solution is as small as 212 mV which is 168 mV smaller than that of graphite electrode. This could be attributed to the high quality graphene accelerating the electron transfer rate in [Fe(CN)6]3−/4− electrochemistry. Finally, platinum was electro reduced onto the GC and graphene modified GC based electrodes for use in methanol oxidation. The catalytic activities of graphene-supported Pt nanoparticles and Pt-GC electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation were 1900 and 915.5 A g−1 Pt, which can reveal the particular properties of the exfoliated graphene supports.