Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area analysis of different graphene materials: A comparison to their structural regularity and electrical properties

Abstract

Graphene has obtained a great interest both in research and industries due to its potential and promising physical, electrical and mechanical properties. While it has been widely researched for advanced applications, its fundamental properties are still being explored and have to be well understood. The physical properties such as specific surface area (SSA), inter-sheet distance (d-spacing) and Raman spectroscopy data for graphene derivatives are closely related to each other, and this work focused on establishing the correlation between these critical factors with respect to their electrical conductivities. Different graphitic materials f(graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxides (rGO), functionalised graphene oxide (frGO) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNP)) were taken in to account to elaborate the underlying mechanisms between extrinsic SSA and other physical parameters, such as intrinsic electrical conductivity. It has been analytically observed that SSA has a direct relationship with d-spacing and defect density of the graphene materials and thus their electrical conductivity highly depends on how large their SSA is the largest the SSA, the highest the electrical conductivity. Materials that poorly reduced were identified to be having low SSA and a higher level of discrepancies. Among different reducing agents used, hydroiodic reduced graphene oxide found to be having larger SSA as 670.98 m2 g−1 and higher electrical conductivity up to 103.3 S cm−1.