Method for manufacturing graphite oxide and apparatus therefor

1. A method for producing graphite oxide comprising:

preparing graphite slurry containing graphite and sulfuric acid;

preparing graphite oxide slurry by injecting an oxidizing agent into the graphite slurry to oxidize the graphite;

mixing a hydrogen peroxide solution into the graphite oxide slurry; and

obtaining graphite oxide from the graphite oxide slurry by using an osmotic pressure filtration membrane apparatus.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the injecting the oxidizing agent into the graphite slurry is stepwisely performed by a multi-stage connected sequencing batch mixer.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the oxidizing agent contains an alkali metal salt.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the alkali metal salt includes a member selected from the group consisting of potassium chlorate, potassium permanganate, sodium nitrate, lithium hypochlorite, lithium perchlorate, lithium manganate, lithium nitrate, cesium nitrate, and combinations thereof.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphite slurry contains the sulfuric acid in an amount of from 30 parts by weight to 70 parts by weight with respect to the graphite in an amount of 1 part by weight.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphite contained in the graphite slurry has a particle size of 100 μm or less.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

irradiating ultrasonic waves to the graphite oxide after the obtaining graphite oxide.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

drying the graphite oxide after the obtaining graphite oxide.

9. An apparatus for producing graphite oxide, comprising:

a graphite slurry mixer configured to mix graphite with sulfuric acid to prepare a graphite slurry;

a sequencing batch mixer connected in series with the graphite slurry mixer and configured to supply an oxidizing agent to the graphite slurry; followed by

a batch reactor connected in series with the sequencing batch mixer; followed by

one or more osmotic pressure filtration membrane apparatuses connected in series with the batch reactor;

wherein a hydrogen peroxide solution supplier is connected to the batch reactor.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising a water supplier connected to the batch reactor.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the sequencing batch mixer is a multi-stage batch mixer containing from 2 stages to 10 stages connected in series.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein at least one osmotic pressure filtration membrane apparatus includes 1 to about 100 osmotic filtration membrane tubes connected in parallel with each other, with circulating distilled water surrounding them.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 , comprising up to 100 osmotic pressure filtration membrane apparatuses.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising an ultrasonic irradiator connected to each of the one or more osmotic pressure filtration membrane apparatuses, wherein said ultrasonic irradiator is configured to exfoliate graphite oxide.

15. The apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising a dryer connected to each of the one or more osmotic pressure filtration membrane apparatuses.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 , further comprising a dryer connected to the ultrasonic irradiator.