Reduction of amorphous carbon clusters from the highly disordered and reduced graphene oxide NPs by acoustical shock waves — Towards the formation of highly ordered graphene

The journey of exploring the acoustical shock wave-induced solid state phase transitions on polymorphic and allotropy materials have gained enormous momentum in recent years after the invention of the tabletop Reddy tube, but, the knowledge of shock wave-induced phase transitions on allotropy materials is very limited in comparison to the polymorphic materials. Hence, in this framework, we report the shock wave-induced transitions based on the reduction of the amorphous carbon clusters in the highly disordered and reduced graphene oxide nanoparticles (rGO NPs) [rGO — is also called as modified graphene]. The reduction of the disordered carbon in the rGO NPs under shocked conditions is examined by the techniques such as X-ray diffractometry and Raman spectrometer. X-ray crystallographic studies clearly present that as the shock pulses are increased, the intensity of the (002) peak is increased for which the authentication is observed by the Raman spectral analyses wherein it is clearly indicated the decrement and increment of the D and G bands against the exposure of the shock pulses thereby the ID/IG ratios are found to be 1.24, 1.17, 1 and 0.927 for 0, 100, 200 and 400 shocks, respectively. According to the Raman spectral results, the area of the amorphous Raman peak is reduced against the shock pulses such that the values are 98, 82, 81 and 48 for the 0, 100, 200 and 400 shocks, respectively. The removal of amorphous carbon clusters in the rGO NPs can be explained on the basis of the conversion of sp3 to sp2 hybridizations based on the shock wave induced hot-spot nucleation mechanism.