Researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, and the Interdisciplinary Research Institute in Lille developed a low cost method for manufacturing multilayered graphene sheets. The new method does not require any specialized equipment and can be implemented in any laboratory.
This is a visualization of a graphene oxide sheet (left top) and a graphene surface with attached tertathiafulvalene (TTF) molecules (right bottom). Graphene rings are composed of six carbon atoms, TTF rings – of three carbon and two sulphur atoms. Credit: IPC PAS, Piotr Gdziorowski
A low cost method for producing graphene sheets has been developed in cooperation within research project by teams from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPC PAS) in Warsaw and the Interdisciplinary Research Institute (IRI) in Lille, France. The method is simple enough to be provided in almost any laboratory throughout the world.
Graphene was discovered in 2004, by peeling off carbon layers from graphite using an ordinary scotch tape. "In what had been peeled off the researchers were able to find one-atom-thick sheets. And that was graphene. If we are thinking about industrial applications of graphene, we have to find better controlled methods for producing this material in a large scale, without using an expensive, specialized equipment", says Izabela Kamiñska, a PhD student from the IPC PAS, a scholarship holder of the Foundation for Polish Science within the International PhD Projects Programme. Kamiñska has carried out her experiments at the International Research Institute.
The existing methods for fabricating graphene – including deposition of epitaxial layer on a metallic substrate or silicon carbide, or chemical or physical vapour deposition – require expensive, specialized equipment and complex manufacturing procedures. Meanwhile, the only more complex apparatus used in the method for producing graphene sheets developed at the IPC PAS and the IRI is an ultrasonic cleaner, an equipment common in many laboratories.
The new process for producing graphene sheets starts with graphite, one of carbon allotrope, on the molecular level resembling a sandwich composed of many graphene planes. These sheets are hardly separable. To weaken interactions between them, graphite must be oxidized, which is usually accomplished with the Hummers method. A powder obtained in that way – graphite oxide – is subsequently suspended in water and placed in an ultrasonic cleaner. The ultrasounds exfoliate oxidized graphene sheets from each other and the resulting colloid contains single graphene oxide flakes with diameter of about 300 nanometers.
The researchers from the IPC PAS and the IRI used graphene oxide manufactured at Materials Science Division in North East Institute of Science and Technology (NEIST) in Dispur, India. "One-atom-thick graphene oxide colloids were a good starting material, but numerous oxygen-containing functional groups became a real difficulty. The problem was that they changed dramatically the physico-chemical properties of the material. Instead of an excellent conductor we had... an insulator", explains Kamiñska.
To remove oxygen from graphene flakes, the researchers from the IPC PAS and the IRI decided to use non-covalent pi-pi stacking interactions between the carbon rings of graphene oxide and the aromatic rings of a compound called tertathiafulvalene (TTF). A TTF molecule is composed of two rings containing three carbon and two sulphur atoms each. "Practically, it was sufficient to mix graphene oxide with tertathiafulvalene, and then put the whole in an ultrasonic cleaner. The interactions between the TTF rings and the graphene oxide rings resulted in a reduction of graphene oxide to graphene with a simultaneous oxidation of the TTF molecules", describes Kamiñska.
As a result, the obtained composite contained graphene flakes with TTF molecules intercalated into them. A droplet of the composite solution was subsequently deposited onto an electrode and dried. Graphene flakes formed on the surface a smooth coating with controllable thickness from 100 to 500 nm that was composed of a few dozen to a few hundreds alternate graphene sheets and TTF molecules.
The final stage in the production of graphene coating was to expel tertathiafulvalene molecules, which was attained by a simple chemical reaction with an appropriately selected compound.
"One of our motivations for the research was to look for new methods for detecting biological substances. That's why after expelling TTF from the graphene coating we checked immediately if we could reincorporate the chemical into the matrix. It turned out that yes. Therefore it is possible to develop a process allowing one to bind a selected compound to a TTF molecule, and then to incorporate the entire complex into a graphene sheet on an electrode and monitor the electric current flow", sums up Prof. Marcin Opa³³o (IPC PAS).
A publication describing the new method appeared early this year in the prestigious journal Chemical Communications, with the cover showing computer visualisation of the graphene sheets with TTF. At present, the researchers from the IPC PAS and the IRI continue their work on further decrease of graphene matrix thickness. The final stage reached also the experiments which show that it is possible to incorporate into the graphene sheet TTF molecules with attached mannose (one of the monosaccharides).
This press release was prepared thanks to the NOBLESSE grant under the activity "Research potential" of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union.
The Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (http://www.ichf.edu.pl/) was established in 1955 as one of the first chemical institutes of the PAS. The Institute's scientific profile is strongly related to the newest global trends in the development of physical chemistry and chemical physics. Scientific research is conducted in nine scientific departments. CHEMIPAN R&D Laboratories, operating as part of the Institute, implement, produce and commercialise specialist chemicals to be used, in particular, in agriculture and pharmaceutical industry. The Institute publishes approximately 200 original research papers annually.
Marcin Opallo | EurekAlert!
Magnetic nano-imaging on a table top
20.04.2018 | Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
New record on squeezing light to one atom: Atomic Lego guides light below one nanometer
20.04.2018 | ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences
University of Connecticut researchers have created a biodegradable composite made of silk fibers that can be used to repair broken load-bearing bones without the complications sometimes presented by other materials.
Repairing major load-bearing bones such as those in the leg can be a long and uncomfortable process.
Study published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces is the outcome of an international effort that included teams from Dresden and Berlin in Germany, and the US.
Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) together with colleagues from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the University of Virginia...
Novel highly efficient and brilliant gamma-ray source: Based on model calculations, physicists of the Max PIanck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg propose a novel method for an efficient high-brilliance gamma-ray source. A giant collimated gamma-ray pulse is generated from the interaction of a dense ultra-relativistic electron beam with a thin solid conductor. Energetic gamma-rays are copiously produced as the electron beam splits into filaments while propagating across the conductor. The resulting gamma-ray energy and flux enable novel experiments in nuclear and fundamental physics.
The typical wavelength of light interacting with an object of the microcosm scales with the size of this object. For atoms, this ranges from visible light to...
Stable joint cartilage can be produced from adult stem cells originating from bone marrow. This is made possible by inducing specific molecular processes occurring during embryonic cartilage formation, as researchers from the University and University Hospital of Basel report in the scientific journal PNAS.
Certain mesenchymal stem/stromal cells from the bone marrow of adults are considered extremely promising for skeletal tissue regeneration. These adult stem...
In the fight against cancer, scientists are developing new drugs to hit tumor cells at so far unused weak points. Such a “sore spot” is the protein complex...
13.04.2018 | Event News
12.04.2018 | Event News
09.04.2018 | Event News
20.04.2018 | Physics and Astronomy
20.04.2018 | Interdisciplinary Research
20.04.2018 | Physics and Astronomy