Investigation on multistep purified carbon nanostructures synthesized from a variety of hydrocarbon precursors
Nanotechnology has become by far the fastest growing area and the shooting star in materials science. Carbon is a fascinating element observed in a large variety of morphologies and atomic structures owing to its chemical ability to form different hybridizations. Carbon nanotechnology has gained significant attention, energized by discoveries such as fullerenes, followed by carbon nanotubes, and, of course the latest addition to the carbon family, graphene. Graphene, a two- dimensional honeycomb lattice of sp2-bonded carbon atoms, possesses a wealth of exceptional properties that has resulted in intense research activities. Although graphenes prospect for applications in wide areas is attractive, making and manipulating graphene is a daunting task. The most fruitful and cost-effective way to synthesize graphene in huge scale from bulk graphite is by reduction of Graphene oxide. Graphene oxide is nothing but a corrugated carbon sheet with over half of the carbon atoms functionalized with hydroxyl and epoxy groups, and edges partially occupied by hydroxyl, carboxyl, ketone, ester and even lactol structures. It has recently emerged as a new carbon-based nanoscale material that provides an alternative path to graphene due to its own alluring properties. In the present study, carbon nanomaterials are derived from hydrocarbon precursors- kerosene, camphor and liquid paraffin by thermal decomposition. Graphene oxide is then synthesized from these carbon nanostructures by modified Hummers technique. The as-prepared soot nanostructures and graphene oxide nanosheets are investigated by various experimental techniques viz. Raman Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), UV- Visible Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The effect of ultrasonication on the samples is also studied.