An intermittent microwave-exfoliated non-expansive graphite oxide process for highly-efficient production of high-quality graphene

Xuefeng Zou; Jiangyu Hao; Yujie Qiang; Bin Xiang; Xinyue Liang; Hujun Shen

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2020.01.039

An intermittent microwave-exfoliated non-expansive graphite oxide process for highly-efficient production of high-quality graphene

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2020 Apr 1:565:288-294. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.01.039. Epub 2020 Jan 14.

Authors

Xuefeng Zou¹, Jiangyu Hao², Yujie Qiang³, Bin Xiang⁴, Xinyue Liang², Hujun Shen⁵

Affiliations

¹ Guizhou Provincial Key Laboratory of Computational Nano-Material Science, Guizhou Education University, Guiyang 550018, China. Electronic address: njzouxf@126.com.
² Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China; College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing 401331, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China.
⁴ Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China; College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing 401331, China. Electronic address: xiangbin@cqu.edu.cn.
⁵ Guizhou Provincial Key Laboratory of Computational Nano-Material Science, Guizhou Education University, Guiyang 550018, China. Electronic address: hujun.shen@hotmail.com.

PMID: 31978791
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.01.039

Abstract

Redox methods represented by Hummers' method are the most frequently-used pathways to prepare graphene, but to date still very low-efficient, because of its time-consuming washing and hard reduction process. Here we report an intermittent microwave-exfoliated non-expansive graphite oxide (GtO) process to prepare a wrinkled graphene with a high reduction degree (C/O: 19.0), a high defect degree, and a high specific surface area (1333.7 m² g^-1). Findings show that the non-expansive GtO without water washing indicates an almost 100% exfoliated success rate during this intermittent microwave process. The obtained graphene shows easy dispersity in organic solvents, and excellent supercapacitor performance in specific capacitance, rate capacity, and especially in cycling lifetime with no decay after 80,000 cycles at 30 A g^-1. Consequently, this special microwave process successfully solves the problems of tedious washing and hard reduction in redox methods, thus exponentially boosting the efficiency of preparing graphene.

Keywords: Graphene; High performance; Highly-efficient production; Microwave; Non-expansive graphite oxide.