A Review on Common Methods for Characterizing Graphene Oxide (GO)

Graphene oxide, two-dimensional material with the thickness of 1.1±0.2 nm, has gained attention to a greater extent in the field of science for its radically distinctive properties: physical, chemical, optical as well as electrical etc. Graphene oxide (monolayer sheet) has been synthesized by oxidizing graphite (millions of layer) to graphite oxide (multilayers) which has been converted into graphene oxide via exfoliation followed by sonication and centrifugation - a method mentioned as Modified Hummer Method. I focus on the chemical structure of graphene oxide. However, I discuss the different analytical methods such as UV-Visible spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) as well as X-ray Diffraction pattern for characterizing the graphene oxide. Furthermore, this review covers the analytical evaluation of graphene oxide and discuss the past, present and future of graphene oxide in the scientific world.