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Role of electrolyte at the interface and in the dispersion of graphene in organic solvents

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Abstract

The electrochemical exfoliation of graphene is a very useful technique to prepare highly conductive graphene with a low defect level. However, low dispersion stability is a barrier to this process being used to prepare graphene directly in a wide range of applications. Even though the dispersion stability and concentration of graphene are important, the reasons for the lower dispersion stability and lower concentration of electrochemically exfoliated graphene have not yet been clarified. In this study, we identified that the strong electrostatic attractive interaction between charged ions from electrolytes at the interfaces of graphene layers substantially deteriorated the dispersion stability. Both the stability and the concentration of graphene dispersions were substantially enhanced upon removal of the residual electrolytes from the organic solvents used in this study.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Technology Development Program to Solve Climate Changes of the National Research Foundation, funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (Grant NRF-2016M1A2A2940912 and NRF-2015M1A2A2054996). This work was also supported by the Dongguk University Research Fund of 2017 and 2019 (S-2019-G0001-00030).

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  1. Muhammad Mohsin Hossain and Sae Youn Lee contributed equally to this work.

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  1. Department of Energy and Materials Engineering, Research Center for Photoenergy Harvesting & Conversion Technology (phct), Dongguk University, 30 Phildong-ro 1-gil, Junggu, Seoul, 04620, Republic of Korea

    Muhammad Mohsin Hossain, Sae Youn Lee, Hemraj Mahipati Yadav & Jae-Joon Lee

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Hossain, M.M., Lee, S.Y., Yadav, H.M. et al. Role of electrolyte at the interface and in the dispersion of graphene in organic solvents. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 31, 404–413 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-019-02542-z

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