Preparation of water-soluble graphene nanoplatelets and highly conductive films

This paper tackles the challenge of preparation stable, highly concentrated aqueous graphene dispersions. Despite tremendous recent interest, there has been limited success in developing a method that ensures the total dispersion of non-oxidized, defect-free graphene nanosheets in water. This study successfully demonstrates that few-layer graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) can form highly concentrated aqueous colloidal solutions after they have been pretreated in a low-concentration inorganic sodium-hypochlorite and sodium-bromide salted aqueous solvent. This method retains the graphitic structure as evidenced by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. Vacuum-filtrated freestanding films demonstrate an electrical conductivity as high as 3000 S m−1. This dispersion technique is believed to be applicable not only for GNPs, but also for dispersing other types of graphitic materials, including fullerenes, single/double/multi-walled carbon nanotubes, graphene nanoribbons and etc.

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