Liquid-Phase Exfoliation of Few-Layer Graphene and Effect of Sonication Time on Concentration of Produced Few Layer Graphene

Abstract

Although graphene has been produced by various methods at lab scale, however, its cost effective mass production method is still a challenge. Graphene has been produced by liquid phase exfoliation, which is the most probable method for commercial production of graphene for various industrial applications.This paper reports high concentration production of few-layer graphene in DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) as solvent through liquid phase exfoliation assisted with sonication. The temperature was kept below 30oC. SEM, AFM, and XRD were used to characterize the produced graphene. SEM results confirm the production of few-layer graphene. EDX analysis shows that the graphene surface is free from oxides and impurities. AFM results also confirm the production of few-layer graphene. The UV-visible spectrophotometer was used to determine the concentration of the produced graphene, and the investigations demonstrate that the graphene production was increased by increasing the sonication time. There exist a linear relationship between the amount of produced graphene and sonication time for supplying energy during sonication.