The critical contribution of oxidation debris on the acidic properties of graphene oxide in an aqueous solution

Abstract The contribution of oxidation debris (OD) to the acidity of graphene oxide (GO) was investigated in this study. With Na2CO3 as the titrator base, the Boehm titration results showed that the total acidity of GO in an aqueous solution decreased from 9.72 to 2.74 mmol g−1 after a thorough removal of OD and that the total acidity of OD was 26.45 mmol g−1. Thermogravimetric analyses showed that the mass ratios of OD and residual graphene sheets (named bwGO) were ∼26 % and ∼73 % of the whole pristine GO, respectively. Based on the quantitative relationships between the mass ratio and acid site density, it was concluded that the total acidity of GO was equal to the sum of the acidity from bwGO and the OD contained in GO. Under alkaline conditions, the splitting and stripping of OD was attributed to the combined effect of the cleavage of H-bonds by nucleophilic attack from OH- and the electrostatic repulsion due to the ionization of carboxylic acids, in which the former became dominant when the pH shifted to neutral and weakly acidic. This study provides an explanation for the origin of GO acidity in aqueous solutions and highlights the role of OD in the chemistry of GO.