Facile and effective oxidation of graphite using sodium metaperiodate

[Display omitted] •Facile and effective oxidation of graphite using sodium metaperiodate: a non-metallic approach.•Intercalation of metaperiodate ions and easy to remove the non-metals and other impurities, where no toxic gas is evolved.•Carbon-oxygen ratio is calculated as 2.09.•The size of as-prepared graphene oxide layer is around 0.9–1.1nm. A novel effective and facile oxidation process of graphite using sodium metaperiodate is reported. The formed graphene oxide is confirmed by XRD, XPS and 13C NMR MAS spectra. AFM images show the size of the layer to be around 0.9–1.1nm and the carbon-oxygen ratio is calculated as 2.09. The new method of synthesis can be referred as non-metallic oxidation of graphite, which is easy to remove the impurities with no evolution of toxic gases.