42. High yield, solid exfoliation and liquid dispersion of graphite driven by a donor-acceptor interaction

Desi Hamed Gharib, Shaun Gietman, François Malherbe, Simon E. Moulton, Carbon, (2017) DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2017.08.025

Graphene derived from readily available graphite is viewed as the most effective route for large-scale production, due to the low cost of the raw material. However, the difficulty in achieving complete exfoliation, as well as the intrinsic insolubility of graphite, remains a key challenge. Herein, we describe a single-step approach to effectively disrupt and cleave the network of pep interactions, induce the exfoliation of graphite and disperse the resulting exfoliated material in organic solvents, all driven by electron rich (graphene) donor-acceptor interactions. 1H NMR measurements of the acceptors was recorded on Spinsolve carbon benchtop NMR.