Sciencemadness Discussion Board

graphene synthesis?

DoctorPurple - 29-12-2018 at 21:37

Hi guys! I'm very new to this forum (just singed up today) so plz go easy on me. I was wondering if anyone has attempted to synthesize graphene? specifically exfoliation of graphite via sonication? I know of many ways it can be made at home but I haven't heard much about sonication. if you've made any by some other method I'd still love to hear about that too.

macckone - 30-12-2018 at 19:57

adhesive tape/graphite method is classic and easy as hell.

VSEPR_VOID - 30-12-2018 at 21:21

There are some good videos on making graphene on youtube

WGTR - 30-12-2018 at 22:29

Quote: Originally posted by DoctorPurple  
Hi guys! I'm very new to this forum (just singed up today) so plz go easy on me. I was wondering if anyone has attempted to synthesize graphene? specifically exfoliation of graphite via sonication? I know of many ways it can be made at home but I haven't heard much about sonication. if you've made any by some other method I'd still love to hear about that too.


Here are some opinions based on previous observation, but aren't by any means intended to be authoritative. It's been a few years since I played with this stuff.

Sonication in dimethyl formamide works. I have a suspension of graphene in DMF that has remained stable for several years. It's a black liquid.

Graphite is the most stable arrangement of elemental carbon. Over a critical concentration, graphene suspended in a solvent will re-arrange to graphite and precipitate out, leaving a lower stable concentration than could've been attained if a lower concentration was initially attempted. The maximum concentration that can be initially attained depends on the exfoliating solvent and the size of the starting material. Over-sonicating can be counterproductive, as it seems to fracture the graphene to smaller pieces that tend to re-arrange to graphite more easily.

It's possible to obtain very concentrated dispersions of graphene, at least for short periods of time, if a dilute dispersion of graphene is rapidly filtered out of the solvent. The graphene stacks into a film, but doesn't have time to re-arrange to graphite. While the film is still wet, it can be re-dispersed into a smaller quantity of solvent via very brief sonication.