The Electrical Property of Large Few Layer Graphene Flakes Obtained by Microwaves Assisted Exfoliation of Expanded Graphite

TL;DR

This study demonstrates a microwave-assisted method to produce few-layer graphene flakes with low electrical resistance, showing potential for scalable high-quality graphene synthesis.

Contribution

Introduces a rapid microwave-assisted exfoliation technique for producing few-layer graphene with low resistance, comparable to CVD-grown graphene.

Findings

Yield of 7-20% for FLG production

FLG sheets range from 3 to 12 layers

Average resistance of 1.6 kΩ

Abstract

Few layer graphene (FLG) was synthesized by $\mu$-wave assisted exfoliation of expanded graphite in toluene with an overall yield from c.a. 7% to 20%. A significant difference in the absorption of $\mu$-waves by the expanded graphite and toluene allowed a rapid heating of the medium. The number of FLG sheets varies from 3 to 12, while the lateral size of the sheets exceeds few $\mu$ms. The obtained FLG exhibits very low resistance with average value of 1.6 k$\Omega$ (500 $\Omega$ minimum) which is comparable to that of high quality graphenes synthesized by CVD methods, and lower than numbers of exfoliated graphenes.