STTR Phase I: Eco-Friendly Mass Production of Highly Conductive Graphene Sheets with Controlled Structures

这个小型企业技术转移（STTR）第一期项目旨在开发一种高效、快速、环保的方法，用于大规模生产具有可控结构的高导电性溶液相石墨烯。大多数商业上可用的液相导电石墨烯片要么是高度缺陷的还原氧化石墨烯（r-GO），要么是无缺陷的原始石墨烯片。它们要么分散在特殊的有机溶剂中，要么在表面活性剂的帮助下稳定在水溶液中。大多数生产过程涉及有毒化学物质或释放有毒物质作为副产品，对我们的环境造成潜在危害。本项目提出的新型绿色微波氧化化学研究将实现快速（数十秒）、直接（不需要后还原）、低成本制造高导电、清洁（不需要表面活性剂和稳定剂）、低氧、横向尺寸和分子结构可控的石墨烯片。该项目的成功将导致一系列新的石墨烯产品，这些产品不同于还原氧化石墨烯和原始石墨烯片，同时结合了它们的许多优点，可用于研究社会制造具有定制结构的高导电性石墨烯片，以最适合广泛的应用。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是具有独特分子结构和可控尺寸的高导电性石墨烯片具有成本效益的大规模生产的巨大潜力。鉴于石墨烯在能源产生和储存、催化剂、电子、涂层、传感器等方面的广泛应用潜力，这些结构明确的石墨烯片的商业化将加速这些广泛领域的科学理解和技术发展。该项目还可以通过环保和低能耗的方式大规模生产这些材料，从而极大地造福我们的社会。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project aims to develop an efficient, rapid, and eco-friendly approach for mass production of highly conductive solution phase graphene with controlled structures. Most of the commercial available solution phase conductive graphene sheets are either highly defective reduced graphene oxide (r-GO) or non-defective pristine graphene sheets. They are either dispersed in special organic solvents or aqueous solutions with the help of surfactants for stabilization. Most of the production processes involve toxic chemicals or release toxic substances as byproducts, causing potential hazard to our environment. The study of novel green microwave oxidation chemistries proposed in this project will lead to rapid (tens of seconds), direct (without requirement for post reduction), and low cost fabrication of highly conductive, clean (without requirement for surfactants and stabilizers), and low oxygen containing graphene sheets with controlled lateral dimensions and molecular structures. The success of the project will leads to a series of new graphene products which are different from both rGO and pristine graphene sheets while combining many of their merits and can be used for the research society to fabricate highly conductive graphene sheets with tailored structures for best fit a broad spectrum of applications.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is the great potential to enable cost effective mass production of highly conductive graphene sheets with unique molecular structures and controllable sizes. Given the known wide potential application of graphene in energy generation and storage, catalysts, electronics, coating, sensors, etc, the commercial available of these graphene sheets with well-defined structures will speed up the scientific understanding and technological developments in these broad areas. This project could also greatly benefit our society with the environment friendly and low energy consumption approach for the mass production of these materials.