The chemical exfoliation method for graphene synthesis is liquid-phase exfoliation.
This method involves the use of energy to exfoliate bulk graphite within a solvent that has suitable surface tension to stabilize the resulting graphene.
The solvent is typically non-aqueous, such as n-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), or can be aqueous with the addition of a surfactant.
The energy for exfoliation is initially provided by ultrasonic horn sonication, but high shear forces are increasingly being used.
The yield of this process is typically low, around a few percent, necessitating the use of centrifugation to obtain a significant fraction of monolayer and few-layer graphene flakes in the final suspension.
3 Key Steps Explained
1. Solvent Selection
The choice of solvent is crucial as it must have the right surface tension to stabilize the graphene flakes.
Non-aqueous solvents like NMP are commonly used, but aqueous solutions can also be effective if a surfactant is added to prevent aggregation.
2. Energy Input
Initially, ultrasonic horn sonication was the primary method used to provide the energy necessary for exfoliation.
This method involves exposing the graphite-solvent mixture to high-frequency sound waves, which create cavitation bubbles that collapse and generate localized high energy, thus exfoliating the graphite into graphene.
However, high shear forces, such as those generated in high-speed mixing or microfluidic devices, are becoming more popular due to their potential for more controlled and efficient exfoliation.
3. Yield Enhancement
Due to the low yield of the exfoliation process, centrifugation is employed to separate the desired monolayer and few-layer graphene flakes from the bulk material and larger, multi-layer flakes.
This step is critical for obtaining a suspension with a high concentration of the desired graphene flakes.
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