▎ 摘　　要

We have developed an easy and scalable chemical reduction method assisted by microwave irradiation for the synthesis of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanosheets in solid state. The as-synthesized RGO is characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetry, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. It is revealed that the bulk of the oxygen-containing functional groups are removed from graphene oxide with this one-step reduction method and monolayer RGO sheets are got from its N,N-dimethyl formamide solution. It is found that the ammonium bicarbonate plays a key role in the preparation of RGO. Considering the analysis results, a mechanism for the formation of RGO is proposed. Besides being eco-friendly, when compared to previous chemical techniques, this process has several advantages like low cost, simplicity and short processing times, which may find practical applications in the preparation of graphene-based composites. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.