Graphene from amorphous titanium carbide by chlorination under 200 °C and atmospheric pressures

The synthesis of graphene via decomposition of SiC has opened a promising route for large-scale production of graphene. However, extremely high requirements for almost perfectly ordered crystal SiC and harsh process conditions such as high temperatures (>1200 °C) and ultra-high vacuum are two significant challenges hindering its wide use to synthesize graphene by decomposition of SiC. Here, we show that the readily available precursor of carbides, amorphous TiC (a-Ti(1-x)C(x)), can be transformed into graphene nanosheets (GNS) with tunable layers by chlorination method at very low temperatures (200 °C) and ambient pressures. Moreover, freestanding GNS can be achieved by stripping off GNS from the surface of resulting particles. Therefore, our strategy, the direct transformation of a-Ti(1-x)C(x) into graphene, is simple and expected to be easily scaled up.