Graphene: Powder, Flakes, Ribbons, and Sheets

Graphene’s unique physical and electrical properties (high tensile strength, Young’s modulus, electron mobility, and thermal conductivity) have led to its nickname of “super carbon.” Graphene research involves the study of several different physical forms of the material: powders, flakes, ribbons, a...

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Veröffentlicht in:Accounts of chemical research 2013-10, Vol.46 (10), p.2307-2318
Hauptverfasser: James, Dustin K, Tour, James M
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Graphene’s unique physical and electrical properties (high tensile strength, Young’s modulus, electron mobility, and thermal conductivity) have led to its nickname of “super carbon.” Graphene research involves the study of several different physical forms of the material: powders, flakes, ribbons, and sheets and others not yet named or imagined. Within those forms, graphene can include a single layer, two layers, or ≤10 sheets of sp2 carbon atoms. The chemistry and applications available with graphene depend on both the physical form of the graphene and the number of layers in the material. Therefore the available permutations of graphene are numerous, and we will discuss a subset of this work, covering some of our research on the synthesis and use of many of the different physical and layered forms of graphene. Initially, we worked with commercially available graphite, with which we extended diazonium chemistry developed to functionalize single-walled carbon nanotubes to produce graphitic materials. These structures were soluble in common organic solvents and were better dispersed in composites. We developed an improved synthesis of graphene oxide (GO) and explored how the workup protocol for the synthesis of GO can change the electronic structure and chemical functionality of the GO product. We also developed a method to remove graphene layers one-by-one from flakes. These powders and sheets of GO can serve as fluid loss prevention additives in drilling fluids for the oil industry. Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) combine small width with long length, producing valuable electronic and physical properties. We developed two complementary syntheses of GNRs from multiwalled carbon nanotubes: one simple oxidative method that produces GNRs with some defects and one reductive method that produces GNRs that are less defective and more electrically conductive. These GNRs can be used in low-loss, high permittivity composites, as conductive reinforcement coatings on Kevlar fibers and in the fabrication of large area transparent electrodes. Using solid carbon sources such as polymers, food, insects, and waste, we can grow monolayer and bilayer graphene directly on metal catalysts, and carbon-sources containing nitrogen can produce nitrogen-doped graphene. The resulting graphene can be transferred to other surfaces, such as metal grids, for potential use in transparent touch screens for applications in personal electronics and large area photovoltaic devices. Because the
ISSN:0001-4842
1520-4898
DOI:10.1021/ar300127r