New approach for the reduction of graphene oxide with triphenylphosphine dihalideElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c5ra26046a

We developed a one-flask method for the thermal reduction of graphene oxide (GO) with triphenylphosphine dihalide (Ph 3 PX 2 ) at 180 °C. Our approach offers a potential to cost-effective mass-production of graphene nanosheets under mild and environmentally friendly conditions and to avoid the use of strong acids or reducing agents. Significantly, this reduced graphene oxide (rGO) by utilizing a Ph 3 PX 2 reductant has a C/O ratio higher than 15 and an electrical conductivity of 400 S cm −1 , which indicate that this synthetic method allows us to achieve graphene nanosheets with high quality when comparing with previous reduction methods. We developed a one-flask method for the thermal reduction of graphene oxide (GO) with triphenylphosphine dihalide (Ph 3 PX 2 ) at 180 °C.