Abstract
A tremendous work is being done to apply graphene to create novel advanced nanomaterials. The minimized number of few-layer graphene, the absence of different dispersants in the films produced from dispersions of graphene, the concentration of these dispersions are often a key to realizing the goal of achieving high functional performance. Here we show an efficient preparation of graphene by ultrasound disintegration in an organic solvent of the nanostructured graphite obtained by solvent-free mechanochemical delamination in the absence of chemically active compounds. The predominant part of single-sheet graphene nanoparticles in the obtained dispersions is experimentally confirmed. The proposed approach essentially improves the known liquid exfoliation method based on ultrasound disintegration of the bulk graphite, because the proposed preliminary mechanochemical treatment of the initial bulk graphite could provide more than 75 % yield of the single-sheet graphene nanoparticles in the dispersant-free high concentration dispersions (in different organic solvents, including ethanol).
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Acknowledgments
The work was supported by the Targeted Complex Program of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine “Fundamental problems of nanostructured systems, nanomaterials and nanotechnologies” and by the Program of the Joint Scientific Projects of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Russian Foundation for Basic Research. The authors are grateful to Prof. O. Lavrentovich and Dr. Min Gao from Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, for assistance with Cryo-TEM studies and Prof. V.V. Strel’chuk and Dr. A.S. Nikolenko from V.E. Lashkaryov Institute of Semiconductor Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for assistance with Raman microscopy experiments.
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Posudievsky, O.Y., Khazieieva, O.A., Cherepanov, V.V. et al. High yield of graphene by dispersant-free liquid exfoliation of mechanochemically delaminated graphite. J Nanopart Res 15, 2046 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-013-2046-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-013-2046-y