CONCLUSIONS
With VIB-co -VI-co -Py serving as a water-soluble polymer
stabilizer, the high-shear mixing of graphite in aqueous liquid was
demonstrated to be a facile, green, and low-cost method for efficient
production of FLG. In particular, PR/V of FLG
reaches as high as 0.17 g L-1 h-1,
significantly superior to those (1.6 × 10-3 − 8.3 ×
10-2 g L-1 h-1)
realized by LPE with ≥5.0 L of aqueous liquid. It is ascribed to the
combined contributions of excellent dispersing/stabilizing ability of
VIB-co -VI-co -Py on FLG, little formation of large-sized
micelles at high CP (>3.0
mg mL-1) under high-shear mixing, and little effect ofCG,i on shear force transmission. The
harvested FLG shows high quality (few basal defects) and excellent
electrical conductivity (up to 4.0 × 104 S
m-1), allowing for preparation of the flexible and
conductive FLG films as a potential alternative to brittle ITO films.
Furthermore, the FLG material exhibits a favorable redispersibility in
water with CG as high as 3.87 mg
mL-1. These merits together with low stabilizer
content (down to 6.8 wt%) render the shear-exfoliated FLG very useful
in various applications from polymer composites to electronics,
especially those where FLG has to interface aqueous environment and/or
only a small amount of stabilizer is allowed. Therefore, this work
represents a meaningful attempt to forward the practical applications of
graphene. In that direction, it is highly desirable for high-quality
graphene or FLG to be mass produced in an economical and eco-friendly
way.