High-Yield Synthesis of Mesoscopic Conductive and Dispersible Carbon Nanostructures via Ultrasonication of Commercial Precursors

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• 作者：Vikram K. Srivastava ; Ronald A. Quinlan ; Alexander L. Agapov ; Alexander Kisliuk ; Gajanan S. Bhat ; Jimmy W. Mays
• 刊名：Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
• 出版年：2014
• 出版时间：June 11, 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：53
• 期：23
• 页码：9781-9791
• 全文大小：406K
• 年卷期：v.53,no.23(June 11, 2014)
• ISSN：1520-5045

文摘

The need to produce large quantities of graphenic materials displaying excellent conductivity, thermal resistance, and tunable properties for industrial applications has spurred interest in new techniques for exfoliating graphite. In this paper, sonication-assisted exfoliation of graphitic precursors in the presence of chloroform is shown to produce chemically and structurally unique exfoliated graphitic materials in high yields. These exfoliated graphites, referred to as mesographite and mesographene, respectively, exhibit unique properties which depend on the number of layers and exfoliation conditions. Structural characterization of mesographene reveals the presence of nanoscale two-dimensional graphene layers, and three-dimensional carbon nanostructures sandwiched between layers, similar to those found in ball-milled and intercalated graphites. The conductivities of mesographite and mesographene are 2700 and 2000 S/m, respectively, indicating high conductivity despite flake damage. Optical absorption measurements of mesographite sonicated in various solvents showed significant changes in dispersion characteristics, and also indicated significant changes to mesoscopic colloidal behavior. A mechanism for functionalization and formation of capped carbon nanostructures is proposed by integrating the chemical and structural characterization in relation to the various carbon structures observed by electron microscopy. Composites based on common polymers were prepared by solution processing, and changes in thermal properties indicate improved dispersion of mesographite in polar polymers.