Liquid-phase exfoliation of graphene in organic solvents with addition of naphthalene.
We report a facile method for the production of graphene sheets through liquid-phase exfoliation of graphite in organic solvents with addition of naphthalene. The production yield of graphene is significantly increased with the addition of naphthalene in most solvents tested in this work. Naphthalene serves as a "molecular wedge" to intercalate into the edge of graphite, which plays a key role during sonication and significantly improves the production yield of graphene. The graphene concentration of the dispersion in 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone is as high as 0.15 mg/mL (after sonication for 90 min), which allows this method to easily produce films and composites for a range of applications.
School of Chemical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 680-749, Republic of Korea; College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Food Safety, Bohai University, 19 Sci-tech Road, Jinzhou 121013, PR China.
Jiasheng
J
Xu
School of Chemical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 680-749, Republic of Korea.
Dinh Khoi
DK
Dang
School of Chemical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 680-749, Republic of Korea.
Van Tam
VT
Tran
State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, PR China.
Xiaoyang
X
Liu
School of Chemical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 680-749, Republic of Korea.
Jin Suk
JS
Chung
School of Chemical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 680-749, Republic of Korea.
Seung Hyun
SH
Hur
School of Chemical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 680-749, Republic of Korea.
Won Mook
WM
Choi
School of Chemical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan 680-749, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: ejkim@ulsan.ac.kr.
Eui Jung
EJ
Kim
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0100, USA.
Paul A
PA
Kohl
Graphene; Liquid-phase exfoliation; Naphthalene; π–π Interaction