Controllable selective exfoliation of high-quality graphene nanosheets and nanodots by ionic liquid assisted grinding

TL;DR

This paper presents a method for controllably exfoliating high-quality graphene nanosheets and nanodots using ionic liquid-assisted grinding, producing solvent-free, low-oxygen graphene with tunable dimensions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanical grinding technique with ionic liquids for selective, controllable production of high-quality graphene nanosheets and nanodots.

Findings

Graphene sheets are 2-5 layers thick.

Nanodots have diameters of 9-29 nm and heights of 1-16 nm.

Processing time controls nanodot size and height.

Abstract

Bulk quantities of graphene nanosheets and nanodots have been selectively fabricated by mechanical grinding exfoliation of natural graphite in a small quantity of ionic liquids. The resulting graphene sheets and dots are solvent free with low levels of naturally absorbed oxygen, inherited from the starting graphite. The sheets are only two to five layers thick. The graphene nanodots have diameters in the range of 9-29 nm and heights in the range of 1-16 nm, which can be controlled by changing the processing time.