• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.209-214
• /
• 2012

In this work, the reduced graphene nanosheets were synthesized from pre-exfoliated graphite flakes. The pristine graphite flakes were firstly pre-exfoliated to graphite nanoplatelets in the presence of acetic acid. The obtained graphite nanoplatelets were treated by Hummer's method to produce graphite oxide sheets and were finally exfoliated to graphene nanosheets by ultrasonication and reduction processes. The prepared graphene nanosheets were studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). From the results, it was found that the preexfoliation process showed significant influence on preparation of graphite oxide sheets and graphene nanosheets. The prepared graphene nanosheets were applied to the preparation of conductive materials, which yielded a greatly improved electrical resistance of $200{\Omega}/sq$.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.261-267
• /
• 2018

This paper discusses a study of cement mortar reinforced with Graphene Oxide (GO) flakes carried out at the University of Plymouth. Over 60 specimens were prepared and tested to obtain the tensile, compressive and flexural strengths of cement mortar with/without 0.5% GO flakes by weight of cement. The dispersion of the GO flakes and the effect of the use of polycarboxylate ether superplasticizer (0.2% by weight of cement) on the material strength are discussed. Images of the particle sizes of GO are presented from the transmission electron microscopy analysis. In addition, the images from the field emission scanning electron microscope analysis are also presented to show the difference of the microscopic structure of cement mortar with/without GO. The results of the strength tests are presented. It is shown that the inclusion of the GO flakes in general led to positive results, which suggest that GO improved the tensile, compressive and flexural strengths of cement mortar.

• Composites Research
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.108-114
• /
• 2021

Graphene flakes are generally mass-produced by converting graphene oxide into reduced graphene oxide using chemical or thermal reduction. These graphene flakes can be stacked to form a free-standing graphene paper, which can be used for various applications. However, a graphene paper lacks stretchability, which hinders its application in stretchable devices. In this work, we introduced wrinkles in a graphene paper to make it stretchable. A graphene paper fabricated by vacuum-filtering a graphene dispersion was placed on a pre-stretched adhesive film. When the pre-stretched adhesive film returned to the original state, the graphene paper was wrinkled. The effect of the pre-stretching and wet condition of the graphene papers was experimentally investigated by using scanning electron microscopy. In addition, we observed the change of the period of the wrinkles in the graphene paper depending on the pre-stretching.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2014.02a
• /
• pp.232.2-232.2
• /
• 2014

Since its discovery in 2004, graphene, a sp2-hybridized 2-Dimension carbon material, has drawn enormous attention. A variety of approaches have been attempted, such as epitaxial growth from silicon carbide, chemical reduction of graphene oxide and CVD. Among these approaches, the CVD process takes great attention due to its guarantee of high quality and large scale with high yield on various transition metals. After synthesis of graphene on metal substrate, the subsequent transfer process is needed to transfer graphene onto various target substrates, such as bubbling transfer, renewable epoxy transfer and wet etching transfer. However, those transfer processes are hard to control and inevitably induce defects to graphene film. Especially for wet etching transfer, the metal substrate is totally etched away, which is horrendous resources wasting, time consuming, and unsuitable for industry production. Thus, our group develops one-step process to directly grow graphene on glass substrate in plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Copper foil is used as catalyst to enhance the growth of graphene, as well as a temperature shield to provide relatively low temperature to glass substrate. The effect of growth time is reported that longer growth time will provide lower sheet resistance and higher VSG flakes. The VSG with conductivity of $800{\Omega}/sq$ and thickness of 270 nm grown on glass substrate can be obtained under 12 min growing time. The morphology is clearly showed by SEM image and Raman spectra that VSG film is composed of base layer of amorphous carbon and vertically arranged graphene flakes.

• Carbon letters
• /
• v.24
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2017

We studied the basic properties and fabrication of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) prepared using eco-friendly reduction agents in the graphene solution process. Hydrazine is generally used to reduce graphene oxide (GO), which results in polluting emissions as well as fixed nitrogen functional groups on different defects in the graphene sheets. To replace hydrazine, we developed eco-friendly reduction agents with similar or better reducing properties, and selected of them for further analysis. In this study, GO layers were produced from graphite flakes using a modified Hummer's method, and rGO layers were reduced using hydrazine hydrate, L-ascorbic acid, and gluconic acid. We measured the particle sizes and the dispersion stabilities in the rGO dispersed solvents for the three agents and analyzed the structural, electrical, and optical properties of the rGO films. The results showed that the degree of reduction was in the order L-ascorbic acid ${\geq}$ hydrazine > glucose. GO reduced using L-ascorbic acid had a sheet resistance of $121k{\Omega}/sq$, while that reduced using gluconic acid showed worse electrical properties than the other two reduction agents. Therefore, L-ascorbic acid is the most suitable eco-friendly reduction agent that can be substituted for hydrazine.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.251-261
• /
• 2012

The nanocomposites containing graphene oxide flakes were prepared in order to improve the mechanical properties of artificial marbles based on poly(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA) matrix. Graphene oxide flakes were prepared from graphite by oxidation with Hummers method followed by exfoliation with thermal treatment. Surface of graphene oxide flakes were modified with oxyfluorination in various oxygene:fluorine compositions to improve the interfacial compatibility. The nanocomposites containing graphenes modified with oxyfluorination in the oxygen content of 50% and higher showed the significant increase in flexural strength, flexural modulus, Rockwell hardness, Barcol hardness, and Izod impact strength. The morphology of fractured surface showed the improved interfacial adhesion between PMMA matrix and the graphenes which were properly treated with oxyfluorination. The mechanical properties of nanocomposite were deteriorated by increasing the content of graphene above 0.07 phr due to the nonuniform dispersion of graphenes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.08a
• /
• pp.278.1-278.1
• /
• 2013

Among the prerequisites for stable neural interfacing are the long-term stability of electrical performance of and the excellent biocompatibility of conducting materials in implantable neural electrodes. Reduced graphene oxide offers a great potential for a variety of biomedical applications including biosensors and, particularly, neural interfaces due to its superb material properties such as high electrical conductivity, decent optical transparency, facile processibility, and etc. Nonetheless, there have been few systematic studies on the graphene-based neural interfaces in terms of biocompatibility of electrode materials and long term stability in electrical characteristics. In this research, we prepared the primary culture of rat hippocampal neurons directly on reduced graphene oxide films which is chosen as a model electrode material for the neural electrode. We observed that the viability of primary neuronal culture on the present structure is minimally affected by nanoscale graphene flakes below. These results implicate that the multilayer films of reduced graphene oxides can be utilized for the next-generation neural interfaces with decent biocompatibility and outstanding electrical performance.

• Applied Microscopy
• /
• v.47 no.3
• /
• pp.176-186
• /
• 2017

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have been studied widely owing to their outstanding properties since monolayer graphene was isolated in 2004. Especially, among 2D materials, phosphorene, a single atomic layer of black phosphorus (BP), has been highlighted for its electrical properties. This material can serve as a substitute for graphene, which has been revealed as a "semi-metal", in next-generation semiconductors. However, few-layer BP is prone to degradation under ambient conditions owing to its reactivity with oxygen and water, which results in the condensation of water droplets on the surface of the BP flakes. This causes charge transfer from the phosphorus atom to oxygen, resulting in the formation of phosphoric acid (oxide) and degrades the various properties of BP. Therefore, it is necessary to find passivation methods to prevent BP flakes from being degraded under ambient conditions. This review article deals with recent studies on passivation methods for BP and their performance against oxygen and water, effects on the electrical properties of BP, and the extent to how they protect BP.

• Carbon letters
• /
• v.26
• /
• pp.81-87
• /
• 2018

Morphological differences in multi-layered graphene flakes or graphene nanoplatelets prepared by oxidative (rGO-NP, reduced graphene oxide-nanoplatelets) and non-oxidative (GIC-NP, graphite intercalation compound-nanoplatelets) routes were investigated with various analytical methods. Both types of NPs have similar specific surface areas but very different structural differences. Therefore, this study proposes an effective and simple method to identify structural differences in graphene-like allotropes. The adsorptive potential peaks of rGO-NP attained by the density functional theory method were found to be more scattered over the basal and non-basal regions than those of GIC-NP. Raman spectra and high resolution TEM images showed more distinctive crystallographic defects in the rGO-NP than in the GIC-NP. Because the R-ratio values of the edge and basal plane of the sample were maintained and relatively similar in the rGO-NP (0.944 for edge & 1.026 for basal), the discrepancy between those values in the GIC-NP were found to be much greater (0.918 for edge & 0.164 for basal). The electrical conductivity results showed a remarkable gap between the rGO-NP and GIC-NP attributed to their inherent morphological and crystallographic properties.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.35 no.7
• /
• pp.1973-1978
• /
• 2014

Here, we present a facile method to synthesize Pt nanoparticles (NPs) and graphene composite materials (Pt/G) via vacuum filtration. Anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates were used to separate Pt/G composite and liquid phase. This method can be used to easily tune the mass ratio of Pt NPs and graphene. Pt NPs, graphene, and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as building blocks were characterized by a variety of techniques such as scanning electron microscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. We compared the electrocatalytic activities of Pt/G with Pt NP and CNT films (Pt/CNT) by cyclic voltammetry (CV), CO oxidation, and methanol oxidation. Pt/G was much more stable than pure Pt films. Also, Pt/G had better electrochemical activity, CO tolerance and methanol oxidation than Pt/CNT loaded with the same amount of Pt NPs due to the better dispersion of Pt NPs on graphene flakes without aggregation. We further synthesized Au@Pt disk/G and Pt nanorods/G to determine if our synthetic method can be applied to other NP shapes such as nanodisks and nanorods, for further electrocatalysis studies.