Preparation and characterization of reduced graphene nanosheets via pre-exfoliation of graphite flakes

In this work, the reduced graphene nanosheets were synthesized from pre-exfoliated graphite flakes. The pristine graphite flakes were firstly pre-exfoliated to graphite nanoplatelets in the presence of acetic acid. The obtained graphite nanoplatelets were treated by Hummer's method to produce graphite oxide sheets and were finally exfoliated to graphene nanosheets by ultrasonication and reduction processes. The prepared graphene nanosheets were studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). From the results, it was found that the preexfoliation process showed significant influence on preparation of graphite oxide sheets and graphene nanosheets. The prepared graphene nanosheets were applied to the preparation of conductive materials, which yielded a greatly improved electrical resistance of 200 O/sq.