Electrochemical stripping features of graphite and its products characterization

ABSTRACT

A stable dispersion in mixed solvent of water and N,N-dimethyl formamide (DMF) of graphene was synthesized by one-step electrochemical approach. Here we demonstrate about electrochemical stripping graphite to prepare graphene influence by different electrolytes. The physical and chemical properties of the stripping product had been characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-Vis spectrophotometer (UV-Vis), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) . The characteristic results of XRD showed that it could improve the efficiency of graphite stripping when H₂SO₄ was used as electrolyte mother liquid and amount of HNO₃ was doped in electrolyte; XPS and FTIR results indicate that the electrochemical stripping products preserve the intrinsic structure of graphene. The results of SEM and TEM shown that the surface morphology of the as-prepared graphene was folded lamellar structure and have good transparency;its thickness varies from 0.8 nm to a few nanometers.

KEYWORDS:

• electrochemical stripping
• graphite rod
• graphene
• electrolyte
• characterization

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial supportof the Cultivation Fund of the Key Scientific and Technical Innovation Project, Ministry of Education of China (no. 508057), the Scientific Research Foundation of Jiangxi Provincial Department of Education (GJJ10116), and the Scientific Research Foundation of Jiangxi Province (2010BSB03003).