One pot synthesis of graphene based on microwave assisted solvothermal technique

This report provides a facile, low cost, rapid and efficient method to obtain high quality graphene with large scale. The synthetic method started with the treatment of the graphite flakes with glutaric acid. The pretreatment of graphite flakes with glutaric acid is critical step to push the graphite flakes away at equal distances which are approximately equal the length of the glutaric acid molecule (0.88 nm). The pretreated graphite flakes were dispersed into methanol and introduced into Teflon autoclave and put into microwave oven with precise power and temperature for a certain time. The power, temperature and time of reaction govern the number of produced graphene layers. According to the obtained results, graphene monolayer was obtained at microwave power of 800 W and temperature 200 °C for 30 min only. Furthermore, the synthetic recipe enables to economically produce graphene monolayers with low price.