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

这个小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目旨在开发一种高效，快速和环保的方法，用于大规模生产具有受控结构的高导电溶液相石墨烯。大多数市售的溶液相导电石墨烯片是高度缺陷的还原氧化石墨烯（r-GO）或无缺陷的原始石墨烯片。它们可以分散在特殊的有机溶剂或水溶液中，并借助表面活性剂进行稳定。大部分生产过程涉及有毒化学品或释放有毒物质作为副产品，对我们的环境造成潜在危害。在该项目中提出的新型绿色微波氧化化学的研究将导致快速（数十秒）、直接（不需要后还原）和低成本制造具有受控横向尺寸和分子结构的高导电性、清洁（不需要表面活性剂和稳定剂）和低氧的石墨烯片。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rGO和原始石墨烯片，同时结合了它们的许多优点，可用于研究协会制造具有定制结构的高导电石墨烯片，以最好地适应广泛的应用。该项目的商业潜力在于能够成本有效地大规模生产具有独特分子结构和可控尺寸的高导电性石墨烯片的巨大潜力。考虑到石墨烯在能量产生和储存、催化剂、电子、涂层、传感器等方面的广泛潜在应用，这些具有明确结构的石墨烯片的商业可用性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境友好和低能耗的方法大规模生产这些材料，使我们的社会受益匪浅。

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.