Studies of manufacturing controlled-release graphene acid and catalyzing synthesis of chalcone with Claisen–Schmidt condensation reaction

In the paper, graphene acid (GA) was manufactured, using flake graphite as raw material, and the acidity and the structure of GA were characterized as well as. Then, chalcone was synthesized in the presence of GA, using acetophenone and benzaldehyde as the reactant. The results showed that the acidity of GA was for pH = 1.12 in aqueous solution, and it was structured by the graphene sheets with the spaces between the graphene sheet and the graphene sheet and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and acetic acid (CH3CO2H) inside the spaces. At the same time, the results also exhibited that the chalcone yield was able to reach 60.36% when GA dosage was 5 g, and the chalcone yields could attain apart 60.36, 52.05 and 31.16% when 5 g of GA was used thrice. This shows that GA is not only a high-performance catalyst, but also a controlled-release catalyst.

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