UNDERSTANDING THE CHEMISTRY INVOLVED IN THE WHOLE PREPARATION PROCESS OF GRAPHENE MATERIALS FROM PITCH-BASED GRAPHITES

摘要

A major effort has been devoted in recent years to the synthesis of graphene by different methods [1]. The preparation of graphene by chemical methods such as the graphene oxide route [1] offers the possibility of producing it on a large scale and, at the same time, of controlling its quality, depending on the properties of: i) the parent graphite, ii) the oxidation method used, and iii) the final reduction of the graphene oxide (GO) to graphene. However, it is difficult to determine the exact structure of GO. A key important factor that must be taken into account is the contribution of the characteristics of the parent graphite. Nevertheless there is very little detailed information available on this matter [2, 3]. Previous studies on the behavior of graphite during oxidation to produce graphite oxide have shown that texture and crystal size play an important role in the mechanism involved indicating that preferential attack is directed atjthe edges of the graphite particle, at the same time, at the single, crystal boundaries and at the defects present in the basal planes [4], to order to tackle the questions that still remain unanswered, we propose a study consisting of the following steps: i) the use of a common organic precursor (synthetic coaVbased pitch consisting of a mixture of polycycli caromatic hydrocarbons) for the production of graphitic materials of varying crystal perfection devoid of inorganic material [5], ii) the synthesis of graphene oxide from these three graphites and a fourth commercial graphite (GC).