The reduction of graphene oxide is one of the most facile methods to fabricate a large amount of graphene and the reduction rate of graphene oxide is related with the quality of synthesized graphene for its possible application. The reduction rate is usually determined by using various spectroscopy measurements such as Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Here we propose that the magnetic data can be used as a means of determining the quality of graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) by the investigation of close relation between magnetic moment and chemical bonding state. Our experimental findings and previous theoretical studies suggest that hydroxyl functional groups in GO mainly contribute to Langevin paramagnetism, carboxyl functional groups in RGO1 act as the source for Pauli paramagnetism, and sp2 bonding state in RGO2 plays a major role on the diamagnetism. Especially in terms of mass production, the magnetic data is useful for decomposing the chemical bonding electronic states in graphene-like samples and judging their quality.
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