Continuous Synthesis of Structurally Uniform Graphene Oxide Materials in a Model Taylor–Couette Flow Reactor

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) has proven to be an invaluable material for a wide range of applications. The development of a bulk-scale continuous process to synthesize GO materials has become crucial. In this study, we used a model Taylor–Couette reactor with axial flow to transform the oxidation of graphite flakes into a continuous process. Efficient mixing of graphite and oxidizing agents was achieved via Taylor vortices, which remarkably shortened the duration of graphite oxide (GtO) synthesis from hours to minutes. Our results reveal that the level of oxidation increased at the Taylor vortex flow (TVF) regime and significantly decreased at other hydrodynamic flow regimes. More importantly, TVF regime resulted in structurally uniform GtO products. This confirms that the developed apparatus offers a robust method to synthesize high-quality, structurally uniform GtO in a continuous manner that can be used in numerous applications.