Controlled Sonication as a Route to in-situ Graphene Flake Size Control.

ABSTRACT: Ultrasonication is widely used to exfoliate two dimensional (2D) van der Waals layered materials such as graphene. Its fundamental mechanism, inertial cavitation, is poorly understood and often ignored in ultrasonication strategies resulting in low exfoliation rates, low material yields and wide flake size distributions, making the graphene dispersions produced by ultrasonication less economically viable. Here we report that few-layer graphene yields of up to 18% in three hours can be achieved by optimising inertial cavitation dose during ultrasonication. We demonstrate that inertial cavitation preferentially exfoliates larger flakes and that the graphene exfoliation rate and flake dimensions are strongly correlated with, and therefore can be controlled by, inertial cavitation dose. Furthe

SUBMITTER: Turner P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6581953 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature