Abstract
ABSTRACTThe lateral size of the graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets could be controlled by preparation method, and a simple and effective strategy to adjust the lateral size of GO nanosheets by selecting suitable method is presented. The high shear method was introduced to produce GO nanosheets, and the GO nanosheets (few micrometres) prepared by high shear method is about one order of magnitude larger than GO nanosheets (few hundred nanometres) obtained by ultrasonic method, as evidenced by atomic force microscopy. The FTIR, XPS and Raman analysis revealed that there are no distinct differences in composition and functional groups between the GO nanosheets produced by high shear method and ultrasonic method. The cavitation in the procedure of ultrasonic method is favourable for GO exfoliation, but it also could result in damage to GO nanosheets. The shearing force in the process of high shear method is effective for GO delamination with minimal fragmentation. The results indicated that the high shear method proposed in this paper is an efficient exfoliation means to produce single-layer GO nanosheets.
Highlights
The layered materials feature strong in-plane chemical bonds but weak interlayer interactions, and can be peeled to multiple or even single-layered nanosheets [1]
To elucidate the formation of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets and achieve size-controllable synthesis, we investigated the effects of exfoliation time and method on the size of GO nanosheets
Based on the Atomic force microscopy (AFM) height profile analysis, the cross-sectional contour lines of GO nanosheets are shown in Figure 4 displays the AFM images of GO nanosheets prepared by high shear method at different shear times (1, 2, 3, 4 h)
Summary
The layered materials feature strong in-plane chemical bonds but weak interlayer interactions, and can be peeled to multiple or even single-layered nanosheets [1]. There has been growing interest in exfoliation of layered materials to produce two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets, such as graphene [2,3,4,5,6], graphene oxide (GO) [1,7,8,9,10], etc. GO has recently attracted substantial interest as a possible intermediate for the preparation of graphene [11,12,13] and metal oxide/graphene nanocomposites [14,15,16]. The small area of GO sheets results in high inter-sheet contact resistance in the films due to a large amount of intersheet junctions [10,23,24]. The size control of GO nanosheets is extremely important for certain applications, the large-sized GO nanosheets might be favourable for the
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