Breakthrough in research on surface morphology control of graphene

Since the discovery of graphene, its huge specific surface area, good electrical conductivity, transparency and excellent mechanical properties have attracted the attention of researchers. In recent years, research on graphene has made it possible in electrode materials and organisms. Sensors, optical materials and other fields have a wide range of applications.

It is well known that ideal two-dimensional crystals cannot exist at room temperature, and graphene also has many undulations perpendicular to its plane. Usually, these undulations are difficult to detect, but theoretical and experimental studies have shown that these undulations properties of graphene play an important role. If a method is found to control this microstructure, amplifying this effect, causing the undulations from the atomic scale to the nanoscale, will greatly change the properties of graphene and can be applied to a wider range of fields. At present, the induction of such fluctuations is limited to monolithic graphene, which cannot be widely applied and popularized. Therefore, it is a very meaningful and challenging task to find a simple method to generate large fluctuations and study the performance change.

Professor Chunxu Pan, Ph.D., Department of Materials Physics, School of Physics Science and Technology, Wuhan University, has been taking the structural control and performance research of carbon nanomaterials as an important direction since 2000. Recently, the group used SPS (High Temperature Plasma Discharge Sintering) technology to treat graphene prepared by chemical stripping and found [AIP advances, 071103ADV], which can induce a large number of wrinkle morphology on the surface of graphene, compared with other technologies. The preparation of the monolithic graphene device is eliminated and the structural changes are achieved in a macroscopic amount. The study also found that this morphology has a great influence on the surface properties of graphene, that is, the conversion of graphene from hydrophilic to hydrophobic by SPS, which is of great significance for the development of super hydrophobic materials. This research has made the structural control and application of carbon nano materials further and provided a new direction for the development and research of graphene.

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