Facile Synthesis of Few-Layer Graphene Oxide from Cinnamomum camphora

This study presents a facile synthesis technique to produce few-layer graphene oxide from Cinnamomum camphora (Camphor L.). Camphor upon carbonization and chemical oxidation leads to the formation of few-layer graphene oxide sheets of around ten layers with a lateral size of 4.14 nm and stacking height of 3.10 nm. AFM and SEM analysis results reveal the wrinkled morphology of the graphene oxide sheets formed. The sharp G band and the relative intensity of the defect to the graphitic band in the Raman spectrum indicate the formation of nanocrystalline graphene oxide sheets with fewer defects. The FTIR spectrum and the deconvoluted C 1s XPS spectrum of graphene oxide synthesized reveal the presence of predominant sp(2) hybridized carbon along with carbon bound to various oxygen functionalities. In brief, the formation of high-quality few-layer graphene oxide from an abundant, low-cost, and readily available botanical precursor is herein reported.