High-yield production of 2D crystals by wet-jet milling

Efficient and scalable production of two-dimensional (2D) materials is required to overcome technological hurdles towards the creation of a 2D-material-based industry. Here, we present a novel approach developed for the exfoliation of layered crystals, i.e., graphite, hexagonal-boron nitride and transition metal dichalcogenides. The process is based on high-pressure wet-jet-milling (WJM), resulting in a 2 L h(-1) production of 10 g L-1 of single- and few-layer 2D crystal flakes in dispersion making the scaling-up more affordable. The WJM process enables the production of defect-free and high quality 2D-crystal dispersions on a large scale, opening the way for their full exploitation in different commercial applications, e.g., as anode active material in lithium ion batteries, as reinforcement in polymer-graphene composites, and as conductive inks, as we demonstrate in this report.