Electrical Conductivity of Chemically Reduced Graphene Powders under Compression

Carbon materials such as graphite and graphene exhibit high electrical conductivity. We examined the electrical conductivity of synthetic and natural graphene powders after the chemical reduction of synthetic and natural graphite oxide from synthetic and natural graphite. The trend of electrical conductivity of both graphene (synthetic and natural) was compared with different graphite materials (synthetic, natural, and expanded) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) under compression from 0.3 to 60 MPa. We found that synthetic graphene showed a marked increment in electrical conductivity compared to natural graphene. Interestingly, the total increment in electrical conductivity was greater for denser graphite; however, an opposite behavior was observed in nanocarbon materials such as graphene and CNTs, probably due to the differing layer arrangement of nanocarbon materials.