Graphene Oxide, a Good Reductant template for the synthesis of MnO2 nanosheets

  Recently, PhD. Guixia Zhao, a smart young woman student from the Applied Plasma Division, synthesized graphene-structured MnO2 nanosheets by using graphene oxide as template, and applied this material as pseudosupercapacitor materials, which resulted in high capability.

  The related research results have been published on the 7.5-impact-factor journal Chemical Science. The novelty of this work is that it is the first time to propose graphene oxide as reductant template for the synthesis of MnO2 nanosheets in a mild condition. The in situ redox reaction between graphene oxide and KMnO4 in mild condition resulted in the highly active MnO2 nanosheets, which showed prominent capacitance as pseudocapacitor material. 

  This method further developed the function of graphene in the synthesis of nanomaterials and has successfully copied the 2D structure onto the metal oxide compound, which would open a new mentality for the material synthesis in the future.

  This is not all about Ms Zhao’s researches. Previously, Ms Zhao has already synthesized sulfonated graphene and graphene oxide and applied these materials in pollution management. The related research results have been published in Advanced Materials, Environmental Science & Technology, Applied Physical Letter and Dalton Transactions. After these researches were published, she is invited by RSC Advances and Chinese Science Bulletin to give a review on the graphene materials. At present, other work in Ms Zhao’s research group are focusing on the modifying of graphene materials by different methods and applied the resulted materials in pollutant removal. (Applied plasma division reports)