Radiation induced reduction: an effective and clean route to synthesize functionalized graphene

Herein, we demonstrate that reduction of graphene oxide (GO) could be implemented by gamma-ray irradiation in alcohol/water in the absence of oxygen. The resultant reduced GO (RGO) appears highly reduced and possesses high purity through UV-Vis, XPS, FT-IR spectra and elemental analysis. We speculate that production of reductive radicals from gamma-radiolysis of solvents is the main mechanism for oxygen reducing and graphite restructuring of GO sheets. The control experiments show oxygen absence and alcoholic addition are the essential factors for reduction process, which correlated the production of reductive radicals with GO's reduction. Additionally, the investigation of resultant RGO papers' solution-dispersibility and electrical conductivity indicates this method is favourable to build up graphene-based nanocomposites in solution.