A new study finds that the purity of graphene may be an obstacle to the widespread use of this new material. Reducing silicon contamination in graphene is expected to improve its performance and give full play to the application potential of graphene in the industry.
Graphene is a two-dimensional material composed of a layer of carbon atoms separated from a graphite material. It is light, thin, strong, conductive and thermally conductive, and is a new generation of materials that are highly anticipated by the industry. However, the actual performance of graphene is not satisfactory, and the speed of popularization in the industry is not ideal.
A team led by researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in the UK reported in the journal Nature Communications that they used a state-of-the-art scanning transmission electron microscope to perform detailed atomic-level inspections of commercial grade graphene samples on the market. The degree of silicon contamination is high, and this has a great impact on the performance of graphite thin. For example, the performance of contaminated graphene as an electrode can be 50% lower than theoretically expected.
In a telephone interview with Xinhua News Agency, Langah Ali Ali Jalili said that because graphene has only one layer of atoms, it is particularly susceptible to surface contamination, and silicon pollution makes graphene performance not stable enough. Establish an industry standard to regulate the performance of graphene.
Further experiments have found that although it is difficult to directly remove silicon contamination in graphene, high-purity graphene can be easily obtained by removing the silicon component in graphite, which is a raw material for preparing graphene. The researchers used this method to prepare high-purity graphene, and used them to make large-capacity batteries, as well as a highly sensitive humidity sensor, which confirmed the excellent performance of high-purity graphene.
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