Electrochemical exfoliation of graphite to stage-III graphite bisulfate flakes in low concentration sulfuric acid solution: A novel synthesis route to completely trilayer graphene suspension

Abstract Graphene produced from electrochemical exfoliation of graphite show a scatter in the number of layers. This scatter is a serious drawback for sensor and opto-electronic applications since the electronic properties of graphene change with number of layers. The scatter in the layer number of graphene is caused by formation of the intermediate graphite intercalation compounds (GIC) of different stage numbers as well as simultaneous cleaving of the GICs in the dispersion-unsuitable aqueous environment. In this work, we show the synthesis of stage-III graphite bisulfate (GB) enriched flakes by electrochemical exfoliation of graphite in low concentration (0.1 M) sulfuric acid from two different routes. We further show that the intercalated bisulfate planes provide sites for selective cleaving of the GB particles to trilayer graphene in DMF, a solvent favorable for graphene dispersion. Morphological characterizations show that while GB particles from one of the routes give graphene with a small scatter in the layer numbers, the other route provides a completely trilayer graphene dispersion. TEM and optical micrographs show graphene flakes have linear dimensions of several micrometers and a low aspect ratio suitable for use in sensor applications.