Abstract
The studies on the utilisation of supercritical fluids (SCFs) in processing chemicals and materials have garnered significant attention in the past two decades. SCFs possess both gas- and liquid-like properties that are tunable, rendering them as superior solvents for reactions and processes, for example in the delamination of graphite. SCF technologies are deemed to be potential alternatives to existing technologies for graphene production that are yet to be industrially scalable. This review features recent works on the production of graphene facilitated by SCFs, with emphasis on the conversion of graphite to graphene through exfoliation and reduction. The exfoliation processes report the yield of 6 to 27% of monolayer graphene and 3 to 25% of ≤ 5 layers of graphene, whilst the carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratio of graphene produced via different reduction processes ranges from 0.37 to 28.2 with interlayer spacing of 0.35 to 0.38 nm. Recent applications of gas-expanded solvents for the synthesis of graphene and the fabrication of functionalised graphene materials via SCF-aided processes are also described. In addition, a summary of the properties of common SCFs as well as the characterisation of graphene materials, such as the number of layers, C/O ratio, interlayer spacing, pore size and surface area, is included to provide insights on the process efficiency.
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The authors gratefully express gratitude to all parties which have contributed towards the success of this project, both financially and technically, especially the S&T Innovation 2025 Major Special Programme (grant number 2018B10022) and the Ningbo Natural Science Foundation Programme (grant number 2018A610069) funded by the Ningbo Science and Technology Bureau, China, as well as the UNNC FoSE Faculty Inspiration Grant, China. The Zhejiang Provincial Department of Science and Technology is also acknowledged for this research under its Provincial Key Laboratory Programme (2020E10018).
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Pang, Y.X., Yew, M., Yan, Y. et al. Application of supercritical fluid in the synthesis of graphene materials: a review. J Nanopart Res 23, 204 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-021-05254-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-021-05254-w