Q500 tga equipment

TG analyses were performed in a Q500 TGA equipment (TA Instruments) under nitrogen flow. Samples weighing approximately 10 mg were heated from 25 to 700 °C at a heating rate of 10 °C min⁻¹.

TGA measurements were performed to quantify the percentage of BGNPs present in the films. The Q500 TGA equipment (TA Instruments, New Castle, DE, USA) was used to obtain the mass variation between 40 °C and 800 °C at a heating rate of 10 °C min⁻¹. The amount of BGNPs present in each formulation was calculated following Equation (3): $B(\%)=\frac{Rf-R}{100-R}\times 100$
where B is the amount of BGNPs (%), R the residual weight of the control films (CTR100, CTR50, and Cat50), and Rf is the residual weight of the BGNPs-containing films (BG100, BG50, and CatBG50).

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The chemical compositions of the GO derivative surfaces were determined by XPS in a Surface Science SSX-100 ESCA spectrometer (Thermo Ficher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) by using an Al-Kα X-ray source. High-resolution C1s, O1s, and N1s spectra were collected and the binding energies were corrected at 285.0 eV for the main hydrocarbon peak. Two replicates for each graphene oxide derivative were carried out.
Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The amounts of functional groups of the GO derivatives were determined in a TGA Q500 equipment (TA Instruments, New Castle, DE, USA). 10–15 mg of sample were placed in platinum crucible and heated under nitrogen (flow rate: 100 mL/min) from room temperature up to 800 °C, by using a heating rate of 10 °C/min.
X-ray diffraction (XRD). The crystallinities of the GO derivatives were determined in a Bruker D8-Advance diffractometer (Bruker, Ettlingen, Germany). The Kα wavelength (1.540598 A) of copper was used.
Raman spectroscopy. The Raman spectra of the GO derivatives were obtained in a Jasco NRS-5100 Raman spectrometer (Jasco, Madrid, Spain) using an excitation wavelength of 532 nm.
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The morphologies of the GO derivatives’ surfaces were determined in a Jeol JEM-1400 Plus instrument (Jeol, Tokyo, Japan) by using an acceleration voltage of 120 kV.