Seminar-Scalable synthesis of graphene Nano sheets (GNSs) via simultaneous electrochemical exfoliation and reduction

November 1, 2012
Submitted By Suraj Sharma 109CS0490

About the Seminar

This was a Ph.D. Registration seminar of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering held in the Department Seminar Room on October 17th,11A.M. Mr.Sumanta Kumar Sahoo [Roll No. 511MM102] was the speaker and Prof A. Mallik and Prof. B.C. Ray were the supervisors of the seminar. The topic of discussion was scalable synthesis of graphene Nano sheets (GNSs) via simultaneous electrochemical exfoliation and reduction.

Introduction

Graphene is an atomically thin sheet allotrope of carbon, hexagonally arrayed sp2 bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. From the pool of synthesis techniques, electrochemical method is attractive for graphene synthesis due to its simple, economic, fast and green nature. In our brief experimental exploration an electrochemical method is reported for the preparation of Graphene sheets using the following steps: intercalation of sulphate ion into graphite followed by exfoliation. The intercalated applied potential plays an important role in determining the structures, size and number of layers of synthesized graphene sheets. Concentration of the ionic electrolytes also plays a vital role for synthesis of graphene Nano sheets (GNSs).

PROPERTIES OF GRAPHENE

ELECTRONIC PROPERTIES One of the most important properties of graphene is that its charge carriers behave as massless relativistic particles, or the Dirac fermions.1 It has been demonstrated that graphene is a zero-gap 2D semimetal with a tiny overlap between valence and conductance bands, and charge carriers move with little scattering under ambient conditions.1 It also exhibits a strong ambipolar electric eld eect with the concentration of charge carriers up to 1013 cm-2 and room-temperature mobility of 10 000 cm2 V-1 s-1, when the gate voltage is applied. THERMAL PROPERTIES The thermal conductivity of single-layer suspended graphene at room temperature has been measured as 30005000 W m-1 K-1 depending on the size of the measured graphene sheet.5 It is supported on amorphous silica, a case similar to the practical application, the measured thermal conductivity of graphene is 600 W m-1 K-1, about one order lower than that of the suspended graphene sheet.

SYNTHESIS TECHNIQUE

Electrochemical exfoliation and reduction 1-Octyl-3-methyl-imidazolium hexauorophosphateelectrolyte graphite rods electrodes Reduction agent: hydrazine Deoxygenation agent: KOH or NaOH Temperature: 5090 degree Centigrade Reduction agent: bovine serum albumin Reduction agent: vitamin C Temperature: 95 degree centigrade Reduction agent: Hydriodic acid and acetic acid

YIELD AND PROPERTIES FROM THE ABOVE METHOD

Sheet resistance of graphene paper: 7200 S m-1 Incomplete removal of oxygen-containing groups To be used as template for nanoparticle synthesis Film conductivity: up to 7700 S m-1 Film resistance decreased up to 104 after reduction Sheet resistance: pellets dried after solution