Plasma-assisted Electrochemical Synthesis of Pristine Graphene Sheets

Graphene is a two-dimensional form of graphite made up of a single layer of carbon atoms in a honeycomb lattice that has attracted tremendous interest for its novel physical properties. A key challenge that has emerged is how to synthesize large amounts of graphene (large area or mass) at low cost. The objective of this project is to explore an entirely new method to exfoliate graphene from commercially available graphite products such as pyrolytic graphite (PG) or highly ordered thermal pyrolytic graphite (TPG). Our idea is based on electrochemical exfoliation where a current flows through an electrolyte to enhance the exfoliation of graphene flakes from graphite. A plasma is used as one of the electrodes to amplify the electric fields that are created in solution. In this paper, we present the new process and preliminary characterization of synthesized graphene material by Raman and UV-vis absorbance spectroscopy.