Process for producing highly oriented graphene films

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9580325-B2
Application number	US-201413999282-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 6, 2014
Priority date	Feb 6, 2014
Publication date	Feb 28, 2017
Grant date	Feb 28, 2017

Abstract

A process for producing a highly oriented graphene film (HOGF), comprising: (a) preparing a graphene oxide (GO) dispersion having GO sheets dispersed in a fluid medium; (b) dispensing and depositing the dispersion onto a surface of a supporting substrate to form a layer of GO, wherein the dispensing and depositing procedure includes subjecting the dispersion to an orientation-inducing stress; (c) removing the fluid medium to form a dried layer of GO having an inter-plane spacing d 002 of 0.4 nm to 1.2 nm; (d) slicing the dried layer of GO into multiple pieces of dried GO and stacking at least two pieces of dried GO to form a mass of multiple pieces of GO; and (f) heat treating the mass under an optional first compressive stress to produce the HOGF at a first heat treatment temperature higher than 100° C. to an extent that an inter-plane spacing d 002 is decreased to a value less than 0.4 nm.

First claim

We claim:

1. A process for producing a highly oriented graphene film (HOGF) with a thickness no greater than 0.1 mm, said process comprising:
(a) preparing either a graphene oxide dispersion having graphene oxide sheets dispersed in a fluid medium or a graphene oxide gel having graphene oxide molecules dissolved in a fluid medium, wherein said graphene oxide sheets or graphene oxide molecules contain an oxygen content higher than 5% by weight;
(b) dispensing and depositing said graphene oxide dispersion or graphene oxide gel onto a surface of a supporting substrate to form a first layer of graphene oxide, wherein said dispensing and depositing procedure includes subjecting said graphene oxide dispersion or graphene oxide gel to an orientation-inducing stress;
(c) partially or completely removing said fluid medium from the first layer of graphene oxide to form a first dried layer of graphene oxide having a layer thickness less than 200 μm and having an inter-plane spacing d 002 of 0.4 nm to 1.2 nm as determined by X-ray diffraction and an oxygen content no less than 5% by weight;
(d) preparing at least a second dried layer of graphene oxide by repeating steps (b) and (c) at least one time or preparing multiple sheets of dried graphene oxide by slicing said first dried layer of graphene oxide;
(e) stacking either said first dried layer of graphene oxide with said at least the second dried layer of graphene oxide or said multiple sheets of dried graphene oxide under an optional first compressive stress to form a mass of multiple layers of graphene oxide; and
(f) heat treating the mass of multiple layers of graphene oxide under an optional second compressive stress to produce said highly oriented graphene film at a first heat treatment temperature higher than 100° C. to an extent that an inter-plane spacing d 002 is decreased to a value less than 0.4 nm and the oxygen content is decreased to less than 5% by weight, wherein said step (f) occurs after said step (e).

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein said fluid medium further contains pristine graphene sheets and a pristine graphene to graphene oxide ratio is from 1/100 to 100/1.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein said step (f) further includes heat-treating the graphene oxide mass at a second heat treatment temperature higher than 280° C. for a length of time sufficient for decreasing an inter-plane spacing d 002 to a value of from 0.3354 nm to 0.36 nm and decreasing the oxygen content to less than 2% by weight.

4. The process of claim 3 , wherein said second heat treatment temperature includes at least a temperature selected from (A) 300-1,500° C., (B) 1,500-2,100° C., and/or (C) higher than 2,100° C.

5. The process of claim 3 , wherein said second heat treatment temperature includes a temperature in the range of 300-1,500° C. for at least 1 hour and then a temperature in the range of 1,500-3,200° C. for at least 1 hour.

6. The process of claim 3 , further comprising a compression step, after said step (f), to reduce a thickness of said highly oriented graphene film.

7. The process of claim 3 , wherein said first and/or second heat treatment temperature contains a temperature in the range of 500° C.-1,500° C. and the highly oriented graphene film has an oxygen content less than 1%, an inter-graphene spacing less than 0.345 nm, a thermal conductivity of at least 1,000 W/mK, and/or an electrical conductivity no less than 3,000 S/cm.

8. The process of claim 3 , wherein said first and/or second heat treatment temperature contains a temperature greater than 2,100° C. and the highly oriented graphene film has an oxygen content no greater than 0.001%, an inter-graphene spacing less than 0.336 nm, a mosaic spread value no greater than 0.7, a thermal conductivity of at least 1,500 W/mK, and/or an electrical conductivity no less than 10,000 S/cm.

9. The process of claim 1 , wherein said fluid medium consists of water and/or an alcohol.

10. The process of claim 1 , wherein said first dried layer, said second dried layer, or said multiple sheets of graphene oxide has a thickness no greater than 100 μm.

11. The process of claim 1 , wherein said first dried layer, said second dried layer, or said multiple sheets of graphene oxide has a thickness no greater than 50 μm.

12. The process of claim 1 , wherein said first dried layer, said second dried layer, or said multiple sheets of graphene oxide has a thickness no greater than 20 μm.

13. The process of claim 1 , wherein said graphene oxide dispersion or graphene oxide gel has at least 3% by weight of graphene oxide dispersed in said fluid medium to form a liquid crystal phase.

14. The process of claim 1 , wherein said highly oriented graphene film has a thickness less than 50 μm.

15. The process of claim 1 , wherein said graphene oxide dispersion or graphene oxide gel is prepared by immersing a graphitic material in a powder or fibrous form in an oxidizing liquid in a reaction vessel at a reaction temperature for a length of time sufficient to obtain said graphene oxide dispersion or said graphene oxide gel wherein said graphitic material is selected from natural graphite, artificial graphite, meso-phase carbon, meso-phase pitch, meso-carbon micro-bead, soft carbon, hard carbon, coke, carbon fiber, carbon nano-fiber, carbon nano-tube, or a combination thereof and wherein said graphene oxide has an oxygen content no less than 5% by weight.

16. The process of claim 1 , wherein said steps (b) and (c) include feeding a sheet of a solid substrate material from a roller to a deposition zone, depositing a layer of graphene oxide dispersion or graphene oxide gel onto a surface of said sheet of solid substrate material to form said first graphene oxide layer thereon, drying said graphene oxide dispersion or graphene oxide gel to form the first dried graphene oxide layer deposited on said substrate surface, and collecting said first dried graphene oxide layer-deposited substrate sheet on a collector roller.

17. The process of claim 1 , wherein the highly oriented graphene film exhibits an inter-graphene spacing less than 0.337 nm and a mosaic spread value less than 1.0.

18. The process of claim 1 , wherein the highly oriented graphene film exhibits a degree of graphitization no less than 90% and/or a mosaic spread value no greater than 0.4.

19. The process of claim 1 , wherein said highly oriented graphene film contains chemically bonded graphene planes that are parallel to one another.

20. The process of claim 1 , wherein said graphene oxide dispersion or graphene oxide gel is obtained from a graphitic material having a maximum original graphite grain size and said highly oriented graphene film is a single crystal or a poly-crystal graphene structure having a grain size larger than said maximum original grain size.

21. The process of claim 1 , wherein said highly oriented graphene film contains a combination of sp 2 and sp 3 electronic configurations.

22. The process of claim 1 , wherein said step of heat-treating induces chemical linking, merging, or chemical bonding of graphene oxide sheets, and/or re-graphitization or re-organization of a graphitic structure.

23. A process for producing a highly oriented graphene film (HOGF) with a thickness no greater than 0.1 mm, said process comprising:
(a) preparing either a graphene oxide dispersion having graphene oxide sheets dispersed in a fluid medium or a graphene oxide gel having graphene oxide molecules dissolved in a fluid medium, wherein sa

Assignees

• Zhamu Aruna
• Jang Bor Z
• Wang Yanbo
• Fu Lucy
• Nanotek Instruments Inc

Inventors

• Zhamu Aruna
• Jang Bor Z
• Wang Yanbo
• Fu Lucy

Classifications

• C01B31/0484

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic

• C01B2204/26

  Mechanical properties · CPC title

• C01B31/0446

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic

• B29K2105/0061

  Gel or sol · CPC title

• C01B2204/22

  Electronic properties · CPC title