Green-extraction of carbon thin films from natural mineral Shungite

TL;DR

This paper presents an eco-friendly method for extracting graphene films from natural shungite mineral using physical dispergation, offering a sustainable alternative to conventional chemical processes with potential applications across multiple fields.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, environmentally safe technique for producing graphene from shungite, avoiding harmful chemicals and expanding sustainable material fabrication options.

Findings

Shungite contains amorphous carbon with graphite-like structure.

Graphene films as small as 200 nm were successfully produced.

The method is applicable in electronics, optics, biotechnology, and ecology.

Abstract

Conventional fabrication methods to produce graphene are cumbersome, expensive and are not ecology friendly. This is due to the fact that a large volume of raw materials requires a large number of acids and alkalis, which in turn requires special disposal. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new technologies or refine existing technologies for the production of graphene and create new ecology-safe and effective methods to produce graphene. Here, we utilized the physical dispergation to extract graphene films from natural mineral shungite rock. We studied the structure of shungite via Raman spectrometry and X-ray phases analysis and found that the shungite refers to graphite-like mineral structures. From spectral data, we learned that the main constituent of shungite is amorphous carbon in sp2 and sp3 forms. Transmission electron microscopy images of the processed material revealed that the obtained graphene films with well-developed surfaces are as small as 200 nanometers. Our green fabrication method of graphene can be widely used in a variety of fields from electronics (electrodes), optics, biotechnology (biosensors), ecology (sorbents for wastewater, air purification) to list a few.