INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH

Int. J. Energy Res. 2014; 38:1889–1895

Published online 17 May 2014 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/er.3203

Hydrogen storage on graphene using Benkeser reaction

Ananta Kr. Sarkar1, Shubhanwita Saha1, Saibal Ganguly2, Dipali Banerjee3
and Kajari Kargupta1,*,†
1
Chemical Engineering Department, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India
2
Chemical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Tronoh, Malaysia
3
Department of Physics, Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal, India

SUMMARY
Recently, graphene has received great attention as potential hydrogen storage media. Here, we report a new route to store/
chemisorb high content of hydrogen on graphene by employing Benkeser reaction. Graphene nanosheets are produced via a
soft chemistry synthetic route involving oxidation of graphite using Improved method, ultrasonic exfoliation, and chemical
reduction by using hydrazine with overnight heat treatment. Graphene is hydrogenated by using lithium in ethylenediamine
under Benkeser reaction at atmospheric pressure and 30 °C. Benkeser reaction overcomes the liquid ammonia handling
and produced multiple layer of graphene attached to the hydrogen atoms. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy
and selected area electron diffraction analysis confirm the ordered graphite crystal structure of graphene and reveal the
rough, corrugated hydrogenated graphene layers attached by hydrogen atoms. Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy
analysis confirms that hydrogen adsorption occurs at all the ortho, meta, and para positions of aromatic graphene. The
degree of hydrogenation of graphene estimated by thermogravimetric analysis reveals 14.67% (weight %) hydrogen
storage, which is considerably higher than the earlier reported values of percentage storage achieved using various
physisorption and chemisorption techniques. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
KEY WORDS
hydrogen storage; graphene; Benkeser reaction; hydrogenation

Correspondence
*Kajari Kargupta, Chemical Engineering Department, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India.
†
E-mail: karguptakajari2011@gmail.com

Received 15 February 2014; Accepted 23 March 2014

1. INTRODUCTION for hydrogen storage media. Graphene, the new member of

Hydrogen has great energy potential as an environmentally
clean fuel and as a way to reduce reliance on imported
energy sources in the future [1]. It is imperative to research
for the proper materials that can store hydrogen safely and
efficiently. Different methods and technologies namely
compressed gas cylinder, liquid tank, metal hybrids,
chemical hybrids, and carbon structure have been
employed from the past to store hydrogen [2]. Generally,
the storage of hydrogen is dependent on the microstructure
and the specific surface area [3] of the material. Therefore,
nanostructure and porous carbon materials have received
great attention as potential hydrogen storage media. In
1997, Dillon et al. [4] explained that single-walled carbon
nanotubes could store hydrogen at an ambient temperature.
Since that time, various carbon nanostructures like single-
walled and multiple-walled carbon nanotubes [4,5], tradi-
tional activated carbons [6], graphite nanofibers [7], carbon
nanostructure [8], and polyamine-based carbon nanotubes
[9] have been investigated theoretically and experimentally
carbon family, has attracted great intense interest for its
unique and highly desirable electrochemical, mechanical,
and electrical properties such as a large theoretical specific
surface area (2630 m2 g 1) [10], high values of Young’s
modulus (~1.1 Tpa), excellent thermal conductivity
(~5000 W m 1 s 1) [11], amazing intrinsic mobility
(200,000 cm2 v 1 s 1), and outstanding resistance to gas
permeation. Recently, graphene has been attracting much
attention for hydrogen storage. Reports are available on
physical adsorption and chemisorption of hydrogen on
graphene. Tozzini et al. [12] investigated the reversible
hydrogen storage by controlled bucking of graphene layer
by physisorption. Cheng et al. [1] reported that at room
temperature and 6 Mpa pressure, hydrogen absorption of
graphene was less than 0.2 wt.%, whereas hydrogen uptake
was 0.4 wt.% at 77 K temperature and 100 kPa. Wang et al.
[13] reported that hydrogen adsorption in a vacuum system
at room temperature was about 0.1 to1 vol.%. Wenhui
yuan et al. [14] showed that hydrogen absorption was
about 2.7 wt.% at 298 K and 25 bars on glucose. Very

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1889

A. K. Sarkar et al. Enhanced hydrogen storage on graphene by employing Benkeser reaction
recently, Xian Guo et al. [15] reported that extent of
physisorption of hydrogen by hierarchical graphene was
4.0 wt.%. Physisorption that is physical adsorption of
hydrogen into the storage material is of significance
because of their low weight, relatively high chemical
stability, unique chemical and physical property, and low
cost [16]; however, it has the limitation of a low extent
of hydrogen storage. Chemisorption is an alternative way
to enhance the extent of storage. In order to chemically ad-
sorb hydrogen, different methods have been implemented
to hydrogenate the graphene including Birch reaction
[17,18], high pressure hydrogenation [14,19], H-plasma
procedure [20,21], and polyamine hydrogenation [5,9].
Birch reaction is a low-temperature chemical hydrogena-
tion process involving liquid ammonia, which is very
difficult to handle [17,18]. High-pressure hydrogenation
process is carried out generally in a hydrogen atmosphere
under a high pressure (60–150 bars) and a high temperature
(200–500 °C), which needs very spatial care of handling. It
is reported in the literature that 2.7 wt.% hydrogen can be
stored by employing high-pressure hydrogenation
[14,19]. Xinliang et al. [5] reported that using chemisorp-
tions, hydrogen storage capacity on multiwall carbon
nanotubes in ethylenediamine was about 3.2 wt.%.
Here, in this paper, we report the chemisorption of hy-
drogen on graphene by using lithium in ethylenediamine
under Benkeser reaction [22,23]. Benkeser reaction is
often termed as modified Birch reaction [17,18] and earlier
has been employed to store hydrogen on multiwall carbon
nanotubes [5]. However, no reports are available on
hydrogen storage on graphene employing Benkeser
reduction reaction. The major benefits of employing
Benkeser reaction are that it overcomes the problem of
liquid ammonia handling and it occurs under atmospheric
condition, that is, at room temperature and pressure.
A simple two-step oxidation-reduction approach was
employed to synthesize graphene nanosheets. Graphite
oxide was synthesized by using Improved method [24–27].
Reduction of graphite oxide using hydrazine hydrate
produces graphene. This graphene was hydrogenated by
chemisorption process employing Benkeser reaction.
Graphene and hydrogenated graphene were characterized by
high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM),
Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and
thermogravimetric (TG) analysis. Hydrogen storage capacity
of graphene was estimated from TG analysis.
2. EXPERIMENT
2.1. Material
Graphite powder was purchased from the market with an
average size of 50 μm. Ethylenediamine (C2H8N2, 99%
pure, density 0.90 kg/lit), tert-Butanol (C4H10O, purity
98%, density 0.78 kg/lit), ethanol (C2H5OH, 99.9% purity,
density 0.79 kg/lit); KMnO4 powder, H2SO4, H3PO4, and
H2O2 were purchased from E. Merck Limited (Mumbai,
1890
India). Lithium (Li, 99% purity) was purchased from
LOBA CHEMIE PVT. LTD. (Mumbai, India). All other
chemicals were of analytical grade. Whatman membranes
(E. Merck Limited, Worli, Mumbai, India) having 0.41 μm
pore size and diameter of 90 mm were used. Argon gas was
procured from Indian Refrigeration Stores (Kolkata, India).
2.2. Preparation of graphite oxide
Graphite oxide (GO) was prepared by using Improved
method [24–27]. Three grams of graphite powder (50 μm
avg. size) and 18 g of KMnO4 powder were added to the
mixture of H2SO4 and H3PO4 (360 ml : 40 ml), and the
mixture was stirred for 12 h. As the reaction is exothermic
one, to maintain the temperature about 50 °C, ice bath is
used for cooling. The product was cooled at room temper-
ature and poured onto 400 ml ice. Immediately, 3 ml H2O2
(30%) was added, and the mixture turned into yellowish.
After that, the mixture was filtered, followed by centrifuga-
tion (3500 rpm) for 30 min. Remaining solid was washed
several times with deionized water and ethanol. Finally,
filtered GO was dried overnight under vacuum at room
temperature and yellowish GO powder was obtained.
2.3. Preparation of graphene
Graphite oxide was prepared by using Improved method.
One gram of yellowish GO was dispersed in 40 ml deion-
ized water, and this mixture was stirred for 20 min. Then,
200 ml deionized water and 160 ml Dimethylformamide
(DMF) was added to the GO suspension, and this mixture
was ultrasonicated for 4 h until it became clear with no vis-
ible particle. After ultrasonication, 0.5 ml hydrazine (RFCL
Ltd., New Delhi, India, 99–100% purity) was added to it,
and it turned into dark black. This dispersed solution was
kept at a vacuum drier overnight at 100 °C, and a dark
black viscous solution was obtained. Subsequently, it was
cooled at room temperature and finally dark black graphene
was obtained.
2.4. Hydrogenation of graphene
Hydrogenation of graphene was carried out by using
Benkeser reaction [5,22,23]. The reaction was carried out
under argon atmosphere. Sixty milligrams graphene and
80 ml ethylenediamine (C2H8N2, 99% purity) were mixed
in a flask. The mixture was stirred for 20 min under argon
atmosphere in a closed flask. Then, 200 mg lithium (Luba
Chemic, 99% purity) pieces were added to it, and it
became blue. After that, 5 ml, tert-Butanol (98% purity)
was added drop wise to the mixture and stirred for 6 h at
room temperature. The resulting dark solution was diluted
by adding 60 ml ethanol. Then, it was filtered by Whatman
filter paper. Filtered hydrogenated graphene was washed
with ethanol, acetone, and deionized water. The product
was dried in a vacuum oven at 80 °C overnight to obtain
hydrogen functionalized graphene.
Int. J. Energy Res. 2014; 38:1889–1895 © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
Enhanced hydrogen storage on graphene by employing Benkeser reaction
2.5. Characterization of hydrogenated
graphene
Fourier transformation infrared spectra were recorded
on an IR Affinity-1 and IR Prestige-21 FTIR Spectrometer
(Shimadzu, Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo, Japan). The samples
were pressed into a pellet with KBr. Thermogravimetric
analyses (TGA) were carried out on Pyris Diamond TG/
DTA (Perkin Elmer, Singapore). The sample was heated
from 32 to 1000 °C with a rate of heating 15.00 °C min 1
under nitrogen atmosphere (circulation rate 150 ml min 1).
Platinum crucible was used with alpha alumina powder as
reference. TEM images were obtained on a A JEOL JEM
2100 electron microscope. HRTEM images were acquired
using a A JEOL JEM 2100 (JEOL KOREA LTD., Seoul,
Korea) high-resolution transmission electron microscope
at an accelerating voltage of 200 kV. For HRTEM, samples
were prepared by dispersing graphene in anhydrous
ethanol to form homogeneous suspension. Then, the drops
of the suspension were loaded on a micro grid.
3. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Hydrogen adsorption property of carbon materials is
closely related to the structural and morphological
Figure 1. (a–c) High-resolution transmission electron microscopy images of graphene nanosheet of different magnifying range and (d)
selected area electron diffraction images of graphene.
Int. J. Energy Res. 2014; 38:1889–1895 © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
A. K. Sarkar et al.
characteristics. Morphological characterization of graphene
and hydrogenated graphene was performed using HRTEM.
Adsorption of hydrogen on graphene was identified by FTIR
analysis; TG analysis was performed to estimate the amount
of chemisorptions.
3.1. Morphological characterization
The HRTEM images recorded before and after hydrogenation
of graphene display the striking differences. Figures 1 and 2
show the HRTEM images of graphene and hydrogenated
graphene, respectively. Figure 1b clearly shows the single-
layer graphene. The corresponding magnified HRTEM image
in Figure 1c also reveals the honeycomb structure of
graphene. The average thickness of graphene sheet shown
in Figure 1c is 2 nm, and average distance between two sheets
is 6 nm. Figure 1d demonstrates the corresponding selected
area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern. It shows a typical
sixfold symmetry diffraction pattern that is ascribed to
graphene. On the contrary, Figure 2 shows rough, corrugated,
and disordered hydrogenated graphene layer. Furthermore,
Figure 2d shows the most significant and distinguished SAED
pattern comprising of multiple-layered sixfold symmetry dif-
fraction pattern, which is ascribed to layers of graphene
attached by hydrogen atoms.
1891
A. K. Sarkar et al. Enhanced hydrogen storage on graphene by employing Benkeser reaction
Figure 2. (a–c) High-resolution transmission electron microscopy images of hydrogenated graphene nanosheet in different magnifying
range and (d) corresponding selected area electron diffraction images of hydrogenated graphene.
3.2. Spectral studies
Fourier transformation infrared gives the idea about the
chemical bonding of the samples. Figure 3 shows the
FTIR of the GO, graphene, and hydrogenated graphene.
Figure 3. Fourier transformation infrared spectra of graphite
oxide, graphene, and hydrogenated graphene.
1892
FTIR of GO shows different peaks at wave numbers as
3050, 2800, and 735 cm 1, which represent the sp3
hybridization (C–H stretching). The peaks at the wave
numbers 1600 and 1475 cm 1 indicate the aromatic
C═C stretching. For graphene, the peak at wave num-
ber of 3400 cm 1 is ascribed as the O–H stretching of
the hydroxyl group that may come from the adsorbed
solvent like water and ethanol. The band of
1600 cm 1 represents the aromatic C═C stretching.
The wave number of 850 cm 1 indicates the C–H
stretching.
Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy of
hydrogenated graphene shows different aromatic sp3
(C–H) stretching at ortho, para, and meta positions of
graphene. Peak at 780 cm 1 wave number is responsi-
ble for C–H stretching for ortho position; wave
number peak at 800 cm 1 designates C–H bond in para
position and 690 cm 1; 880 cm 1 and 780 cm 1 peaks
are the signature of C–H stretching in meta position.
It can be observed from FTIR analysis that hydrogen
adsorption occurred at all the ortho, meta, and para
positions of aromatic graphene. Weak C═C stretching
is observed at the wave number of 1475 and
1590 cm 1. This indicates that all the C═C bonds were
not hydrogenated.
Int. J. Energy Res. 2014; 38:1889–1895 © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
Enhanced hydrogen storage on graphene by employing Benkeser reaction
3.3. Proposed mechanism of hydrogen
storage
Benkeser reduction is the catalytic hydrogenation of
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, using lithium or
calcium metal and any of the following primary amines
or low molecular weight alkyl groups as reductants:
CH3, CH2CH3, CH2CH2CH3, CH2CH2NH2. The
proposed reaction mechanism of Benkeser reduction of
graphene is depicted in Scheme 1.
3.4. Estimation of extent of hydrogen storage
from thermogravimetric analysis
Thermogravimetric analysis gives the details about this
thermal instability of the chemical bonding. TGA is the
useful tool to estimate the amount of functional groups
attached to the graphene. Figure 4 shows the TGA curves
of graphene and hydrogenated graphene.
Graphene and hydrogenated graphene are thermally
stable under nitrogen atmosphere below 200 °C and above
200 °C; both graphene and hydrogenated graphene are
decomposed. The total mass loss takes place in a few steps
over the temperature range of 280–650 °C as shown by the
TG curve. At the initial temperature ranged from
280–380 °C, the decay of the curves is attributed to the
decomposition of adsorbed solvent molecules such as
ethylenediamine, tert-Butanol, ethanol, and water on
hydrogenated graphene and ethanol, ether, and water on
graphene. The decomposition of hydrogen takes place at
the temperature range of 400–600 °C. As the bond energy
Scheme 1. Proposed mechanism of hydrogen storage of
graphene using Benkeser reaction.
Figure 4. Thermogravimetric analyses curves of graphene
(black) and hydrogenated graphene (red).
Int. J. Energy Res. 2014; 38:1889–1895 © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
A. K. Sarkar et al.
of C═C stretching (614 KJ/mol) is more than C–H
stretching (413 KJ/mol), more energy (heat or temperature)
is required to break the C═C bond than C–H bond. Pekker
et al. [17] and Tang et al. [5] have also reported that
the decomposition of covalent hydrogen functionalized
to multiple-walled carbon nanotubes takes place in
the range of 400–600 °C. Pekker et al. [18] detected
the effluent hydrogen and methane via a mass spectrom-
eter in this temperature range. At the temperature
400–600 °C, the weight loss percent of hydrogenated
graphene is much more than that of graphene. At the
temperature near about 600 °C, 89.5% weight of hydro-
genated graphene was lost (only 11.5% weight
remained). At the same temperature, the weight loss of
graphene was 70%. Beyond 600 °C, the C═C bond starts
to decompose. The excess loss of weight of hydroge-
nated graphene compared with graphene is attributed to
the decomposition of C–H bonds.
It is estimated from TGA shown in Figure 4 that in the
temperature range of 400 to 600 °C, an excess of 14.67 wt.
% decomposition occurred for hydrogenated graphene
because of decomposition of C–H bond, that is, dehydro-
genation. Thus, the weight percent of hydrogen stored in
graphene estimated from TGA is 14.67.
Figure 5 shows a comparative analysis of hydrogen
storage (wt%) of graphene estimated from the present
study with the reported values of hydrogen storage in
literatures. It is observed that hydrogenation of
graphene by employing Benkeser reaction results in
considerably higher value of hydrogen storage
(14.67%) than the reported values of hydrogen storage on
graphene using chemisorption [17–21] and physisorption
[4–15] processes. Maximum percent storage reported
in the literature employing graphene is 4% [15]. This
study also reveals that the weight percent hydrogen,
chemisorbed on graphene through Benkeser reaction
is almost 4.5 times higher than the weight percent
hydrogen adsorbed on carbon nanotubes [5] under the
same conditions.
Figure 5. Comparative analysis of hydrogen storage capacity of
graphene between the estimated value of the present study and
the values reported in the literature.
1893
A. K. Sarkar et al. Enhanced hydrogen storage on graphene by employing Benkeser reaction
4. CONCLUSION
Graphene nanosheets were hydrogenated by using lithium in
ethylenediamine under Benkeser reaction at atmospheric
pressure and room temperature. A moderate, possibly
scalable way involving Benkeser reaction was employed
to obtain chemically hydrogenated Graphene nanosheets.
Benkeser reaction occurs at atmospheric pressure and
normal temperature (30 °C) and avoids liquid ammonia in
Birch reduction. HRTEM revealed the corrugated layers of
hydrogenated graphene attached by hydrogen atoms. The
FTIR analysis confirmed that hydrogen adsorption occurred
at all the ortho, meta, and para positions of aromatic graphene
hydrogenation. The weight percent of hydrogen stored into
graphene was estimated from comparative TG analysis of
graphene and hydrogenated graphene. Almost 15% (by
weight) hydrogen was stored during hydrogenation of
graphene under Benkeser reaction. This value is 4.5 times
higher than the earlier reported values of the weight percent
hydrogen adsorbed on carbon nanotubes [5] under the same
conditions; it is also considerably higher than the earlier
reported values of hydrogen adsorption on graphene.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Financial assistance received from Department of Science
and Technology (DST) is gratefully acknowledged.
Financial assistance for PhD research scholar received
from CSIR is also acknowledged. School of Materials
Science and Nanotechnology, Jadavpur University is
gratefully acknowledged for the HRTEM analysis.
REFERENCES
1. Ma LP, Wu ZS, Li J, Wu ED, Ren WC, Cheng HM.
Hydrogen adsorption behaviour of graphene above
critical temperature. International Journal of Hydro-
gen Energy 2009; 34:2329–2332.
2. De Palacio L, Busquin P. Hydrogen Energy and Fuel
Cells – A Vision for Future. European Communities
EUR 20719 EN, 2003.
3. Gergely A, Ujszazy K, Peltz C, Kiraly P, Tarkanyi G,
Mihaly J, Kalman E. In situ polyphenyl derivatisation
and the effect of thermal decomposition of adsorbed
and chemisorbed polyphenyls on the structure of
multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Applied Surface
Science 2011; 257:6212–6219.
4. Dillon AC, Jones KM, Bekkedahl TA, Kiang CH,
Bethhune DS, Heben MJ. Storage of hydrogen in
single-walled carbon nanotubes. Nature 1997;
386:377–379.
5. Tang X, Zhao Y, Jiao Q, Cao Y. Hydrogenation of
multiwall carbon nanotubes in ethylenediamine.
Nanotubes and Carbon Nanostructures 2010; 18:14–23.
1894
6. Zhou L, Zhou Y, Sun Y. Investigation of hydrogen
storage capacity of various carbon materials. Interna-
tional Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2004; 29:475–479.
7. Gupta BK, Srivastava ON. Further studies on
microstuctural and characterization of graphite
nanofibers. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
2001; 26:857–862.
8. Poirier E, Chanine R, Bose TK. Hydrogen adsorption
in carbon nanostructures. International Journal of
Hydrogen Energy 2001; 26:831–835.
9. Chen Y, Zhu H, Liu Y. Preparation of activated rectan-
gular poly-amine based carbon nanotubes and their
application in hydrogen adsorption. International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2011; 36:11738–11745.
10. Stoller MD, Park S, Zhu Y, An J, Ruoff RS. Graphene
based ultracapacitors. Nano Letters 2008; 8:3498–3502.
11. Park S, Ruoff RS. Chemical methods for the
production of graphenes. Nature 2009; 4:217–224.
12. Tozzini V, Pellegrini V. Reversible hydrogen storage
by controlled bucking of graphene layer. Journal of
Physical Chemistry 2011; 115:25523–25528.
13. Chen S, Wang R, Li X. Experimental investigation and
theoretical analysis on measurement of hydrogen
adsorption in vacuum system. International Journal
of Hydrogen Energy 2010; 35:4347–4353.
14. Yuan W, Li B, Li L. A green synthetic approach to
graphene nanosheets for hydrogen adsorption. Applied
Surface Science 2011; 257:10183–10187.
15. Guo CX, Wang Y, Ming C. Hierarchical graphene-
based material for over 4.0 wt % physisorption
hydrogen storage capacity. ACS Sustainable Chemistry
& Engineering 2013; 1:14–18.
16. Gotzias A, Heiberg-Andersen H, Kainourgiakis M,
Sterious T. Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation
of hydrogen adsorption in carbon cones. Applied
Surface Science 2010; 256:5226–5231.
17. Pekker S, Salvetat JP, Jakab E, Bonard JM, Forro L.
Hydrogenation of carbon nanotubes and graphite in
liquid ammonia. Journal of Physics Chemical Biology
2001; 105:7938–7943.
18. Greenfield A, Schindewolf U. Kinetics of Birch reduction.
Journal of Physical Chemistry 1998; 102:1808–1814.
19. Bazhenov AV, Fursova TN, Bashkin IO, Antonov VE,
Kondrateva IV, Krestinin AV, Shulge YM. Electronic
and vibration spectra of hydrogenated carbon single-
walled nanotubes and fullerenes nanotubes. Carbon
Nanostructure 2006; 14:165–173.
20. Khare BN, Meyyappan M, Cassell AM, Nguyen CV,
Han J. Functionalization of carbon nanotubes using
atomic hydrogen from a glow discharge. Nano Letters
2002; 2:73–77.
21. Khare BN, Meyyappan M, Karlj J, Wilhite P, Sisay M,
Imahaka H, Koehne J, Bauschlicher CW. A
Int. J. Energy Res. 2014; 38:1889–1895 © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
Enhanced hydrogen storage on graphene by employing Benkeser reaction
glow discharge of approach for functionalization
of carbon nanotubes. Applied Physics Letter 2006;
81:5237–5239.
22. Benkeser RA, Robinson RE, Sauve DM, Thomas OH.
Selective reduction of aromatic system of mono-
olefins. Journal of American Chemical Society 1954;
76:631–632.
23. Benkeser RA, Arnold CJ, Lambert RF, Owen
TH. Reduction of organic compounds by lithium
in low molecular amines and reduction of aro-
matic compounds containing functional groups.
Journal of American Chemical Society 1955;
77:6042–6045.
Int. J. Energy Res. 2014; 38:1889–1895 © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
A. K. Sarkar et al.
24. Pan S, Aksay IA. Factor controlling the size of
graphene oxide sheets produced via graphite oxide
route. ACS Nano 2011; 5:4073–4083.
25. Marcano DC, Kosynkin DV, Berlin JM, Sinitskii A,
Sun Z, Slesarev A, Alemany LB, Lu W, Tour JM. Improved
synthesis of graphene oxide. ACS Nano 2010; 4:4806–4814.
26. Kuilla T, Bhadra S, Yao D, Kim NH, Bose S, Lee JH. Re-
cent advance in graphene based polymer composites.
Progress in Polymer Science 2010; 35:1350–1375.
27. Kumar NA, Choi HJ, Shin YR, Chang DW, Dai L,
Baek JB. Polyaniline-grafted reduced graphene oxide
for efficient electrochemical supercapacitors. American
Chemical Society 2012; 6:1715–1723.
1895