Direct exfoliation of graphite using a non-ionic polymersurfactant for fabrication of transparent and conductive graphene films

Abstract

A high-yielding dispersion of graphene at high concentration in solvent is critical for practical applications. Herein, we demonstrate the formation of a stable dispersion of pristine graphene in ethanol by exfoliating graphite flakes into individual graphene layers using a non-ionic polymer surfactant under bath-type sonication. Oligothiophene-terminated poly(ethylene glycol) was synthesized and used as a non-ionic and amphiphilic surfactant for exfoliating graphite into graphene. A high-quality graphene film was fabricated from the exfoliated graphene solution by the vacuum filtration method. TEM and SEM reveal that the size of exfoliated graphene flakes is larger than 1 μm. When the graphene film was treated with nitric acid and thionyl chloride after washing with solvent, the film showed high performance with a sheet resistance of 0.3 kΩ sq⁻¹ and a transparency of 74% at 550 nm.