[schmidtbag]

As a disclaimer, I am not a chemist, I am not aspiring to be one, I don't know any chemists, and this is my first post.

A few weeks ago I heard about the ability to convert graphite oxide into graphene as a supercapacitor using a PC Lightscribe burner.  I'm encountering some problems with making the graphene.  But first, here's the procedure I'm aware has proven to work:
1. Mix 27ml of water with 100mg of graphite (or graphene) oxide.
2. Disperse the GO using a sonicator (such as a jewelry cleaner)
3. Get an acetate or PET sheet and cut it in the shape of the lightscribe disc.  Be sure to leave the shiny band exposed.
4. Glue the sheet onto the lightscribe disc, and apply the GO on top of the sheet.
5. Let GO dry overnight
6. Put the disc into a lightscribe burner and burn a completely black image.  May take a few burns to complete.

And that's it, but, I'm not getting any results.  I ordered 2KG of graphite oxide from alibaba.com.  The powder is a very dark gray, as shown in the images, and it is a very fine powder.  While the people who originally documented and discovered this procedure use graphite oxide, some people on youtube happened to use graphene oxide (because it can be acquired from ebay). From what I heard, graphene oxide is analagous to graphite oxide, which supposedly has no impact on the results and makes the two interchangable.  However, all samples I've seen of graphene oxide are brown, not black/gray.  The samples in the youtube videos seem to disperse much more evenly than the graphite oxide I have, and are very opaque compared to mine.

So my questions are:
1. Supposing what I have is actually graphite oxide and not just plain graphite, why is it a different color from graphene oxide?  Is there a way to prove my product is graphite oxide without any expensive equipment?  Remember, I'm not a chemist and I don't know any either, so I don't have access to many lab tools.
2. If what I have really is graphite oxide, what can I do to make it disperse through the water more evenly?
3. Why do you think water is used?  I've found the GO is somewhat "sticky", where I can put a scoop of it on the plastic substrate, shake off the excess GO, and it leaves a gray trail behind that I can presume is a few atoms thick of GO.  I can flick the substrate from the back and none of it comes off, though, it will come off if I touch it with my finger.  Doing this has, so far, proven to not give me any effective or useful results.

[Arkcon]

Graphene is a pretty hot topic these days, and we have several recent threads on these forums.  I don't really know if your procedure should work, or why it doesn't, but if you do a search for "graphene" with this forum's search function, you will at least get a good background on the topic.

[schmidtbag]

I figured graphene was a hot topic.  I more or less have a good grasp of the concept behind this procedure and understand the significance of the carbon chains that separate graphene from graphite.  What I'm asking for isn't so much assistance but clarification and suggestions.  I'll take a look around the forums anyway, but if anyone can at least give me a way to prove the material I have is actually graphite oxide, that would be appreciated.