Applications of Graphene in Catalysis

Graphene

Graphene, a thin sheet of carbon atoms with sp2 bond, has attracted a lots of research interest recent years because of its extraordinary properties. Graphene is a highly flexible and mechanically strong material having high specific area approximately equal to 2600 m²/g [1]. Graphene sheets are highly transparent material which absorbs 2.3% of white light and reflect less than 0.1%. There are several types of graphene which are available in powder form such as graphene oxide, graphene nanoribbons, graphene quantum dots, graphene nanoplatelets, etc. The extraordinary and unique properties of graphene have led to the development of graphene-based materials for a wide range of applications. 

    Graphene-based materials possess applications in different range of fields, such as electronics, fuel cells, biomedical aids, membranes, bio-imaging [2], biosensors [3] etc. Graphene oxide (go) is one of the graphene based materials, which is light due to its aqueous colloidal stability properties. Over the last few years research has been focused on graphene-based materials in the field of catalysis. Graphene and its derivatives are important components for many synthetic catalysts. The structural characteristics of graphene is highly desirable for loading catalyst and the electron mobility of graphene facilates the electron transfer which enhances the catalytic action of the graphene as a catalyst. Due to its extremely high surface area and adsorption capacities graphene also acts as an excellent supporting material for other catalyst. It has the potential to improve the performance of other catalyst by forming composites. There are versatile applications of graphene-based catalysts in organic synthesis, metal free catalysis, photocatalysis, and in catalyst support systems. 

    Oxidation of alcohols and alkenes into their respective aldehydes and ketones, as well as the hydration of alkynes is carried out using graphene as a carbocatalyst. Graphene is also an effective photocatalyst for the degradation of organic pollutants. For the production of hydrogen by water splitting grapheme acts as suitable catalyst. Deposition of metals on graphene further enhances the properties of the graphene and makes the graphene for applications in wide variety of fields such as electrochemical sensing [4], energy storage [5] and catalysis applications [6]. Moreover, Graphene based nanoparticles are promising in fuel cell applications.

 

 Refrences:

1.      Huang. C., Li. C., Shi. G.J. Energy Environ Sci 2012; 5: 8848–8868.

2.      Li J. L., Tang. B., Yuan B., Sun. L., Wang X. G. 2013;, 34: 9519–34.

3.      Akbari. E.,Buntat. Z.,Kiani. MJ.,Enzevaee. A.,Khaledian. M.Int J Environ Anal Chem 2015; 95: 847–54.

4.      Dong.X., Huang W., Chen P., Nanoscale Res Lett 2010; 6: 60.

5.      Zhu.J., Zhu. T., Zhou. X., Zhang. Y., Lou.X. W., Chen. X., Zhang. H., Hng.H. H., Yan. Q. Nanoscale 2011;  3: 1084.

6.      Li.F., Yang. H., Shan. C., Zhang. Q., Han. D., Ivaska. A., Niu. L., J Mater Chem 2009; 19: 4022.

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