Spent potlining waste from aluminum electrolysis cells poses a major nature conservation and economic challenge. Gainful processing and use of such material is the goal of much research today. In my diploma thesis, I used the so-called first cut of the spent pot lining as a base material for synthesis of graphene oxide by the Marcano method. Furthermore, part of the material was chemically reduced with hydrazine. The base material was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), thermogravimetric analysis coupled with mass spectrometry (TGA-MS), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) methods. The synthesized graphene oxide was characterized with SEM and XRD methods. SEM method was also used for characterization of reduced graphene oxide. Due to poor reaction yield, more research is needed, for this method to be suitable for industrial applications.
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