Study of Graphene Obtained by Electrolysis in Sulfuric Acid Electrolytes

Abstract

Last ten years, different methods of graphene production have been developed and reported. The main subject of this work is electrochemical synthesis of graphene using reverse change of the potential during electrolysis performed in acid electrolyte. As electrodes and precursors for graphene production, two types of graphite were used. Also, three types of electrolytes were used: H2SO4 (pH = 0.5); H2SO4 + KOH (pH = 1.2) and H2SO4 + NaOH (pH = 1.2). The obtained graphene samples were observed by both, scanning and transmission electron microscope (SEM and TEM). Thermal stability was studied by means of TG, DTG and DTA methods. Different types of bonds were detected by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Structural analysis was performed by Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD). These methods were used for determination of the size of the crystallites and the number of layers of the studied graphene samples. It was found that by the proposed electrochemical method, low-cost, quality and few-layered graphene can be produced.