Synthesis of multifunctional graphene exhibiting excellent sonochemical dye removal activity, green and regioselective reduction of cinnamaldehyde

The present synthetic protocol focused on the green, cost-effective and bio-synthesis of multifunctional graphene by employing a highly biomedicinal plant, Kigelia Africana
stems aqueous extract as a reducing and stabilizing agent. The synthesized graphene is characterized by UV-Visible, FT-IR, XRD, Raman, HR-SEM and HR-TEM techniques. Thus synthesized grapheme sample demonstrated excellent dye removal activity by adsorbing Rhodamine B and Alizarin Red dyes, where most of the dyes are removed within 5 min by the sonochemical process. Further, the graphene established regioselective and efficient reduction of cinnamaldehyde to cinnamyl alcohol in an aqueous medium with excellent yields (94 %).