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High-concentration shear-exfoliated colloidal dispersion of surfactant–polymer-stabilized few-layer graphene sheets

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Abstract

To exploit the remarkable properties of graphene fully, an efficient large-scale production method is required. Sonication-assisted liquid-phase exfoliation of graphite, for example, has been extensively used for the production of few-layer graphene sheets, but suffers from low efficiency and high energy consumption and thus is not viable for large-scale production. Here we demonstrate a method that is more efficient and has higher scalability potential than sonication. We show that a few-layer graphene at high concentration of up to 1.1 mg ml−1 can be achieved in aqueous-based medium by highly efficient shear exfoliation of graphite in a processing time of just 2 h. The exfoliation process was carried out in a commercially available high shear colloidal mixer fixed with a three-stage rotor–stator shear generator for optimum exfoliation with a continuous circulation system. The high efficiency and a significant improvement over sonication adopting our method were demonstrated by the fact that the conversion to few-layer graphene sheets produced after just 30 min by shear exfoliation required, in contrast, 100s of hours by sonication. High-concentration defect-free few-layer graphene in aqueous medium, produced at short shearing time, demonstrates that this method has high potential for large-scale production. The produced graphene films exhibit additionally a high electrical conductivity of about 29000 S m−1.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate financial support from Omya International AG and also support from the Finnish Academy, POROFIBRE Project (No. 279255). This work made use of the Aalto University Nanomicroscopy Center (Aalto-NMC) for SEM imaging.

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  1. Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems, School of Chemical Engineering, Aalto University, P.O. Box 16300, 00076, Aalto, Finland

    Josphat Phiri, Patrick Gane & Thad C. Maloney

  2. Omya International AG, 4665, Oftringen, Switzerland

    Patrick Gane

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Phiri, J., Gane, P. & Maloney, T.C. High-concentration shear-exfoliated colloidal dispersion of surfactant–polymer-stabilized few-layer graphene sheets. J Mater Sci 52, 8321–8337 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1049-y

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