Green preparation of reduced graphene oxide for sensing and energy storage applications

Preparation of graphene from chemical reduction of graphene oxide (GO) is recognized as one of the most promising methods for large-scale and low-cost production of graphene-based materials. This study reports a new, green, and efficient reducing agent (caffeic acid/CA) for GO reduction. The CA-reduced GO (CA-rGO) shows a high C/O ratio (7.15) that is among the best rGOs prepared with green reducing reagents. Electronic gas sensors and supercapacitors have been fabricated with the CA-rGO and show good performance, which demonstrates the potential of CA-rGO for sensing and energy storage applications.