Self-sustained solid-state exothermic reaction for scalable graphene production

Synthesis of graphene at high temperature offers an alternative route for large-scale production on a short time scale. Through the solid-state exothermic reaction of the polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-Al energetic material, single and few-layer graphene having a lateral size in tens of nanometers are produced with an ultralow power consumption due to the self-sustained characteristics of the reaction. The graphene can directly disperse in ethanol to form stable dispersion and by evaluating in half-cell configuration, the graphene exhibits a stable cycling performance over 1000 cycles. The positive correlation between the dimension of the PTFE precursor and graphene demonstrates the feasibility of synthesizing powdered graphene in a controllable manner. [Display omitted] •A high-temperature synthesis of nanoscale graphene is proposed through the exothermic reaction of PTFE-Al energetic material.•A positive correlation is found between the dimension of the PTFE precursor and energetic-materials-derived graphene.•The energetic-materials-derived graphene shows a good electrochemical performance as anode materials in Li-ion batteries.