Dispersing graphite into few-layers graphene sheets (GS) in water is very appealing as an environmental-friendly, low-cost, low-energy method of obtaining graphene. Very high GS concentrations in water (0.7 mg mL(-1)) were obtained by optimizing the nature of dispersant and the type of ultra-sonic generator. We find that a multi-step sonication procedure involving both tip and bath sources cons...

Thermo-exfoliated graphite (TEG)/CuO/Cu2(OH)3NO3:(Co/Fe) composites were prepared using a wet impregnation method and subsequent thermal treatment. The physicochemical characterization of the composites was carried out by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Ar temperature-desorption techniques. The catalytic efficiency toward CO conversion to CO2 was examined...

Graphene-based materials are elective materials for a number of technologies due to their unique properties. Also, semiconductor nanocrystals have been extensively explored due to their size-dependent properties that make them useful for several applications. By coupling both types of materials, new applications are envisaged that explore the synergistic properties in such hybrid nanostructures...

In this paper, we developed a green and facile approach to the synthesis of chemically converted graphene nanosheets (GNS) based on reducing sugars, such as glucose, fructose and sucrose using exfoliated graphite oxide (GO) as precursor. The obtained GNS is characterized with atomic force microscopy, UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spect...

Supercapacitors, also called ultracapacitors or electrochemical capacitors, store electrical charge on high-surface-area conducting materials. Their widespread use is limited by their low energy storage density and relatively high effective series resistance. Using chemical activation of exfoliated graphite oxide, we synthesized a porous carbon with a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of up t...

Black phosphorus (bP) is the second known elemental allotrope with a layered crystal structure that can be mechanically exfoliated to atomic layer thickness. Unlike metallic graphite and semi-metallic graphene, bP is a semiconductor in both bulk and few-layer form. Here we fabricate bP-naked quantum wells in a back-gated field effect transistor geometry with bP thicknesses ranging from 6±1 nm t...

Graphene monolayers are known to display domains of anisotropic friction with twofold symmetry and anisotropy exceeding 200%. This anisotropy has been thought to originate from periodic nanoscale ripples in the graphene sheet, which enhance puckering around a sliding asperity to a degree determined by the sliding direction. Here we demonstrate that these frictional domains derive not from struc...