Formulation of graphene - metal oxides exfoliated by surfactant ionic liquid (SAILs) colloidal mixture

Stable dispersion of graphene in aqueous phase play a vital role as absorbent for wastewater treatment applications, for example methylene blue dye removal. This can be achieved using surfactant as dispersants to provide repulsive barrier between adjacent graphene sheets against van der Waals interaction that leads to stacking graphene sheets. In addition, absorbance capacity of graphene also can be enhanced with the help of metal oxide such as TiO2 or ZnO. Thus the experiments aim to study the colloidal structure of graphene dispersed by surfactant in the presence of metal oxides (TiO2 and ZnO), particularly the effect of surfactant chemical structure, concentration and metal oxides. The results can be used as platform for designing efficient graphene /metal oxides as absorbent for wastewater treatment.