Preparation of colloidal graphene in quantity by electrochemical exfoliation

We reported the preparation of colloidal graphene in quantity via the anodic exfoliation of graphite in (NH4)2SO4 aqueous solution. In the currently designed electrochemical exfoliation route, mass high-quality graphene was produced within short reaction time, around 1h. The proposed electrochemical exfoliation mechanism showed that SO4(2-) and H2O can be intercalated into those graphite sheets, monolayer and few-layer graphene were obtained by the formation of gaseous SO2 and O2 within graphite sheets. Stability evaluation showed that our exfoliated colloidal graphene can be perfectly stabilized in DMF solvent more than 1 week. The colloidal graphene can be used to construct various simple and complex patterns by writing it on A4 paper, which can be applied to flexible printed electronic devices. Furthermore, colloidal graphene can show promising applications in the fabrication of binder- and additive-free electrodes for supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries. Our present method shows huge potential for industrial-scale synthesis of high-quality graphene and further commercialization of graphene colloid for numerous advanced applications in flexible printed electronics and energy storage devices.