Novel Approach for Electrochemical Functionalization of Graphene with Surfactant

The electrochemical exfoliation of graphite via intercalation is one of the attractive methods to obtain graphene. However, presence of course graphite particles in product is the drawback of this method. In this research, the effect of adding cetyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (CTAC), on the amount of exfoliated graphene and functional groups was studied. Transmission electron microscopy, weighing, UV-vis spectroscopy and electrical conductivity were used for characterization of the products. According to results, presence of this surfactant decreases the erosion, while it increases the exfoliation of graphene flakes. However, after critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the surfactant, exfoliated weight decreased.