An Improved Technique for the Exfoliation of Graphene Nanosheets and Utilization of their Nanocomposites as Fuel Cell Electrodes

Abstract

Graphene is a flat monolayer of carbon atoms tightly packed into a two-dimensional 2D honeycomb lattice. The graphene sheets in graphite interact with each other through van der Waals forces to form layered structure. The first graphene sheets were obtained by extracting monolayer sheets from the three-dimensional graphite using a technique called micromechanical cleavage in 2004 [. There are numerous attempts in the literature to produce monolayer graphene sheets by the treatment of graphite. The first work was conducted by Brodie in 1859 and GO was prepared by repeated treatment of Ceylon graphite with an oxidation mixture consisting of potassium chlorate and fuming nitric acid [. Then, in 1898, Staudenmaier produced graphite oxide (GO) by the oxidation of graphite in concentrated sulfuric acid and nitric acid with potassium chlorate [. However, this method was time consuming and hazardous. Hummers and Offeman found a rapid and safer method for the preparation of GO and in this method graphite was oxidized in water free mixture of sulfuric acid, sodium nitrate and potassium permanganate [.