Delocalized electrochemical exfoliation toward high-throughput fabrication of high-quality graphene

Many of graphene's industrial applications such as electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding demand efficient fabrication of high-quality graphene in large scale. Existing electrochemical exfoliation is a trade-off but never an ideal solution in this regard. Herein, we propose a delocalized electrochemical exfoliation (DEE) strategy to revolutionize the way graphite is electrochemically exfoliated. By transmitting the electric potentials with electron transfer reactions, the electrochemical exfoliation is firstly delocalized from electrode/electrolyte interfaces to the whole electrolyte system, thus making deep yet non-destructive exfoliation possible for every dispersed graphite particle. The as-prepared DEE-graphene possesses an ultralow defect density (-1.3 x 1010 cm-2) and significantly high carbon-to-oxygen ratio (-28). Remarkably, record high yields (greater than 98%, 1-10 layers) and production rates (-72.7 g h-1) are achieved in up-scaled DEE in a reproducible manner. More importantly, processing this high-quality graphene into membranes with optimal orientation brings a superior EMI shielding performance (1.9 x 105 dB cm2 g-1) outperforming the best membranes fabricated from metals and many other 2-D materials including reduced graphene oxide and MXenes. The highly efficient DEE with a fundamentally different mechanism and the effective orientation angle modulation strategy for EMI shielding would inspire research and applications of graphene and other two-dimensional materials.

Automated summary

A new method called delocalized electrochemical exfoliation (DEE) has been proposed for efficient and high-quality graphene production, achieving record high yields and production rates. The prepared DEE-graphene exhibits ultralow defect density and superior electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance when processed into membranes with optimal orientation angles. This highly efficient method and orientation angle modulation strategy for EMI shielding offer new inspiration for the research and applications of graphene and other two-dimensional materials.