“Eau de graphene” from a KC8 graphite intercalation compound prepared by a simple mixing of graphite and molten potassium
Résumé
We synthesized KC8 by simply mixing molten potassium and graphite at 180 °C under inert atmosphere. The KC8 shows
typical shiny bronze color, Raman characteristics and XRD pattern of an efficiently intercalated stage 1 GIC, and is of
sufficient quality to produce fully exfoliated graphenide solutions in tetrahydrofuran (THF) and subsequently single layer graphene in water as “eau de graphene” (EdG). The evolution of absorption and Raman spectroscopic signatures of the EdG
as a function of processing conditions give key indications on the number of layers of the graphene flakes dispersed in EdG.