Temperature as a key parameter for graphene sono-exfoliation in water

Kaur, Amanpreet; Morton, Justin A.; Tyurnina, Anastasia V.; Priyadarshi, Abhinav; Holland, Adam; Mi, Jiawei; Porfyrakis, Kyriakos; Eskin, Dmitry G.; Tzanakis, Iakovos

Abstract

Graphene dispersions in water are highly desirable for a range of applications such as biomedicines, separation membranes, coatings, inkjet printing and more. Recent novel research has been focussed on developing a green approach for scalable production of graphene. However, one important parameter, which is often neglected is the bulk temperature of the processing liquid. This paper follows our earlier work where optimal sono-exfoliation parameters of graphite in aqueous solutions were determined based on the measured acoustic pressure fields at various temperatures and input powers. Here, we take the next step forward and demonstrate using systematic characterisation techniques and acoustic pressure measurements that sonication-assisted liquid phase exfoliation (LPE) of graphite powder can indeed produce high quality few layer graphene flakes in pure water at a specific temperature, i.e. 40 °C, and at an optimised input generator power of 50%, within 2-h of processing. UV–vis analysis also revealed that the exfoliation, stability and uniformity of dispersions were improved with increasing temperature. We further confirmed the successful exfoliation of graphene sheets with minimal level of defects in the optimized sample with the help of Raman microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. This study demonstrated that understanding and controlling processing temperature is one of the key parameters for graphene exfoliation in water which offers a potential pathway for its large-scale production.

Citation

Kaur, A., Morton, J. A., Tyurnina, A. V., Priyadarshi, A., Holland, A., Mi, J., …Tzanakis, I. (2022). Temperature as a key parameter for graphene sono-exfoliation in water. Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, 90, Article 106187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultsonch.2022.106187

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 28, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Sep 30, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-11
• Deposit Date: Jun 26, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 28, 2024
• Journal: Ultrasonics Sonochemistry
• Print ISSN: 1350-4177
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-2828
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 90
• Article Number: 106187
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultsonch.2022.106187
• Keywords: Ultrasonic processing; Cavitation bubbles; Shock waves; Graphene; Exfoliation; Eco-friendly; Water
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4095061