Exfoliation of charcoal by electrochemical method to synthesize few layers graphene sheets

Graphene is a new 2D carbon nanomaterial that has unique properties for several applications. However, the synthesis of large quantity of graphene is a key challenge for researchers. Previous conventional methods such as Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) and epitaxial growth resulted in low production rate and high cost. The research on the electrochemical exfoliation by using charcoal as an electrode is still remains unknown as most researchers employed graphite to produce graphene. The electrochemical exfoliation of charcoal and graphite rod is easy to operate and less time-consuming in the synthesis of few layers graphene sheets. An electrochemical cell consists of charcoal/graphite (as anode) and copper foil (as cathode) which immersed in several types of electrolytes was developed. The surfaces of exfoliated graphene sheets were observed as wrinkle, flaky and layered structures. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed the presence of oxygen functional groups in the exfoliated graphene sheets while the characteristic peak of GO showed up at 2θ = 9-10° was not seen clearly in all XRD spectrums. The results proved that high amount of exfoliated graphene sheets was formed but less amount of graphene oxide (GO) was produced in the electrochemical exfoliation process.