(409c) The Investigation of Various Biomass Feedstocks for the Synthesis of 1 – 3 Layers Graphene

Graphene is a two-dimensional form of crystalline carbon, either a single layer of carbon atoms forming a honeycomb (hexagonal) lattice or several coupled layers of this honeycomb structure. Graphene is a parent form of all graphitic structures of carbon: graphite, which is a three-dimensional crystal consisting of relatively weakly coupled graphene layers.

Few-layered graphene has been synthesized by numerous methods including mechanical cleavage, liquid-phase exfoliation, gas-phase synthesis, Hummers’ method, unrolling of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), epitaxial growth, an electrochemical reaction. However, these methods have some drawbacks, such as low yield ratio, high-energy consumption, the use of expensive substrates, as well as the difficulty of obtaining a high-quality product.

The LPE technique is based on the exfoliation of graphite intercalated compounds in an appropriate solvent. In this technique, there are three subsequent steps: (1) dispersion of feedstock in an acidic medium solution (distill water and hypochloric acid), (2) exfoliation, and (3) collecting. For the intercalation of the acid-based solution molecules, the Van der Waals forces between the carbon layers are overcome by the application of the external driving force, which is the ultrasound energy.