How to make Graphene at Home

It turns out that many readers want to make graphene at home, so here's a spoiler: it is possible to create small quantities of homemade
graphene by you! However, although possible, it's not easy to make considerable amounts. In fact, as of this writing, scientists still
have no clue how to efficiently make graphene in large quantities and high qualities, because the technological processes have not yet
been developed. Still, it's pretty trivial to make DIY graphene sheets in small quantities.

The bits you will be able to make in DIY conditions will be only a few nanometers in length, so forget about macroscopic graphene
sheets or strips. The largest piece of graphene that you can make yourself is about 0.25mm 2 (but you'll make a lot of them). That's not
much larger than the area of the dot in an exclamation mark on this webpage! In industrial uses, scientists make transistors with gate
lengths of under 25nm... so your dot-sized piece of graphene, although it looks insignificantly small to you, could be used to make
hundreds of transistors. Still interested in making graphene? Great, read on!

Method 1: Sticky-tape

The first DIY method is to use a lead pencil to deposit a thick layer of graphite onto a paper. Then use ordinary sticky tape to peel off
a layer of graphite from the paper. Use another piece of sticky tape to remove a layer of graphite from the first sticky tape. Then, use a
third piece of unused sticky tape to remove a layer from the second piece of sticky tape, and so on. Eventually, the graphite layers will
get thinner and thinner, and you will end up with graphene, which is single-layer graphite in the strict sense, or bi-layer or few-layer
graphite (which acts almost like graphene in certain uses). Even though this way of making graphene is only a proof-of-concept, the
sticky tape method works. It takes patience and time, but it's the DIY method which the Manchester group used in 2004. And
remember, they actually won a Nobel Prize for their work, so there's no messing with sticky tape!

Method 2: The kitchen blender

A group of scientists had their article published on April 20th 2014, in which they describe how to make graphene using an approach
called liquid shear exfoliation.

Shear exfoliation in liquids starts by pouring powdered crystal in a liquid, and then using a shear mixer to separate (exfoliate) layers of
material from the crystal. The liquid that is used in such processes is chosen so that the small graphene particles don't clump back
together, and the result is a liquid suspension of graphene. The suspension can then be dried to obtain graphene Nano flakes, or it
could be directly used in later technological processes, such as making of graphene coatings and others.

So, how do you make graphene at home using this method? Well, you can replace the shear mixer with a kitchen blender (since shear
mixing is a fancy word for high-tech blending), and instead of special liquids you can use water and dish detergent. The detergent is
added so that the particles don't clump, and acts as a surfactant. A great source of graphite powder is graphite pencils. Simply powder
a few pencil leads and add the powder to the detergent solution, then blend for a while. Unless you have access to special microscopes
and other equipment, you will probably be unable to confirm the existence of graphene in your detergent solution, but there's a quick
rule of thumb which you can use to estimate the particle size. Generally speaking, if the graphene particles are too big, they will sink
to the bottom of the vessel, while if they are smaller, they will float to the top. Nanoparticles are so small that they will be suspended
in mid-water, and this is what you're aiming for if you want to make graphene. After you make enough graphene particles, you might
want to filter the suspension and leave it to dry.

That being said, although this method of making graphene was described in the paper mentioned above and it worked for the
researchers, don't get too excited about doing it at home this way. It's messy and creates very small Nano-flakes of graphene, not
something to brag to your friends about, unless you have a high tech lab in your basement and intend to use them to make graphene
transistors. On the other hand, this technology, along with sonication assisted liquid phase exfoliation might define how graphene is
made in the future in industrial settings, because of its scalability.

Method 3: DVD burner - LightScribe technology approach

To make graphene using this method, the recipe calls for a DVD computer drive with LightScribe technology as well as some graphite
oxide. You may obtain graphite oxide from a manufacturer, or you can make some graphite oxide at home for this experiment. If
you want to find out how to make graphite oxide at home, scroll down to the next section

Graphite oxide is water-soluble, so after mixing it with water, carefully pour it on a DVD disc. Make sure that the graphite oxide
solution is evenly distributed on the plastic surface of the disc. After the solution has dried and created a film of graphite oxide on the
disc, place the disc into the DVD drive, film-side down. Use the LightScribe software to burn in the layer of oxide. The areas of the
film which come into contact with the laser beam will be turned into graphene. The laser beam causes a chemical reduction which
reduces graphite oxide to graphene. The resulting graphene layer should be carefully removed from the disc and cut into appropriate
sized pieces. These pieces can be used directly to create a graphene supercapacitor. This is perhaps the easiest way to make graphene
at home, but it assumes that you have access to graphite oxide and a Laserscribe drive.

One reader suggested that the LightScribe DVD laser can be replaced using simple Xenon flash. If you have a photo-flash, you could
try this approach as well, and report the results to us at "contact at our site domain". Another tip: do NOT do this if you are not
comfortable with voiding the warranty of the DVD burner.

Method 4: Heptane-water interface film formation

Oil floating on water.

This is the newest DIY graphene recipe we've heard so far. It involves a bit of fluid physics to explain what's going on here first. If
you pour a non-water-soluble liquid into water it will either float on top of the water, or the water will float on top of it, depending on
whether the added liquid is heavier (more dense) or lighter (less dense) than water. A common example is oil floating on top of water
(see image).

One group of scientist discovered that you can make graphene by pouring two solvents which do not mix together, such as heptane
and water, into a glass and adding finely ground graphite powder and putting it in a sonication bath. You can buy heptane in most
chemical supply stores, water is readily available (it's a good idea to use distilled water), and you can easily obtain graphite sticks in
art shops. An ultrasound bath is needed, but these are not uncommon on eBay and the likes. The resulting graphene is one to four
layers thick, and is chemically stable. It can be extracted and deposited on a clean glass plate, or any other substrate.

Graphene on the water-heptane interface.

The idea is to mix the finely ground graphite with water and heptane (1:1 ratio of water and heptane) and sonicate it for a while. What
happens next is that graphite flakes exfoliate at the interface between water and heptane and graphene actually starts "climbing" up the
glass walls of the vial. If a hydrophilic substrate, such as a glass slide, is introduced through the interface, a thin film of graphene will
climb the walls of the slide as well. The glass slide can then be extracted and after drying, you'll be left with graphene-coated glass. If
you use a polyethylene vial, the resulting graphene will not climb the walls of the vial, but you can still extract it with a slide made of
glass or other hydrophilic material. The result is shown in the image on the right.
Graphene on glass.

The final product of this graphene making process is shown on the image on the left. Graphene is deposited as a thin film on both
sides of the glass plate, and its slight light-absorbing properties can be seen by looking through it (Graphene absorbs about 2.3% of
visible light). The explanation of the process is that graphene self-reassembles from the small exfoliated flakes on the interface
between water and heptane because the surface tension of graphene (54.8 mN/m) is nearly right between the surface tension of water
(72.9 mN/m) and heptane (20.1mN/m). The thickness of the graphene film is limited by capillary forces on the interface and the
excess graphene will simply fall to the bottom of the vial. The formation of thick aggregates is suppressed by the diffusion and the
energy requirement needed to form a new layer. For more information, please refer to the original paper

This is possibly the easiest way to make DIY graphene at home as an arbitrarily large sheet. Other methods only create graphene
flakes, but these flakes could possibly be used instead of graphite flakes in this method as a refinement stage. Try it and let us know
how it goes!