Title: Probing the formation of graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide from annealed graphite: a multifaceted approach

Authors: Nooralhuda Yearab; Sumaa Jafer; Amer Al-Nafiey; Halah Mohammed Azeez

Addresses: Teaching at Wareth Al-Alam School for Middle Boys, Ministry of Education, Babylon, 51002, Iraq ' College of Science, Al-Qasim Green University, Babylon, 51013, Iraq ' College of Sciences for Woman-University of Babylon, Babylon, 51002, Iraq ' College of Education for Pure Sciences, University of Babylon, Babylon, 51002, Iraq

Abstract: This research presents a simple, low-cost technique for synthesising graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) through the annealing of graphite at 650°C for times of 2, 4, and 6 hours, without using hazardous strong acids and oxidants typically used in traditional methods. X-ray diffraction (XRD), FT-IR, and UV-Vis spectroscopy were used to monitor how the structure changed. Annealing at 2 and 4 hours produced GO, as shown by the XRD peak at 2θ = 10.7°, the FT-IR band at ∼1020 cm^-1 for the C-O, and the UV-Vis absorptions at ~268 and ~368 nm. Longer annealing (6 hours) produced rGO, which is shown by the loss of oxygen-related features, the decrease of the ∼300 nm UV-Vis shoulder, and the strong peak at ∼270 nm. The results show a time-dependent process (graphite → GO → rGO) with an intermediate interaction regime. This implies that altering the annealing duration can precisely control the oxidation state.

Keywords: graphite; graphene oxide; annealing; FTIR; Fourier transform infrared; XRD; X-ray diffraction.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCMSSE.2026.154224

International Journal of Computational Materials Science and Surface Engineering, 2026 Vol.12 No.4, pp.284 - 297

Received: 25 Dec 2024
Accepted: 06 Feb 2026
Published online: 17 Jun 2026 *

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