High Yield synthesis of aspect ratio controlled graphenic materials from anthracite coal in supercritical fluids

Suchithra Padmajan Sasikala (1) , Lucile Henry (1) , Gulen Yesilbag Tonga (2) , Kai Huang (3) , Riddha Das (1) , Baptiste Giroire (1) , Samuel Marre (1) , Vincent M. Rotello (2) , Alain Penicaud (3) , Philippe Poulin (3) , Cyril Aymonier (1)

1 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux
2 Department of Chemistry [Amherst]
3 CRPP - Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal

This paper rationalizes the green and scalable synthesis of graphenic materials of different aspect ratios using anthracite coal as a single source material under different supercritical environments. Single layer, monodisperse graphene oxide quantum dots (GQDs) are obtained at high yield (55 wt %) from anthracite coal in supercritical water. The obtained GQDs are ∼3 nm in lateral size and display a high fluorescence quantum yield of 28%. They show high cell viability and are readily used for imaging cancer cells. In an analogous experiment, high aspect ratio graphenic materials with ribbon-like morphology (GRs) are synthesized from the same source material in supercritical ethanol at a yield of 6.4 wt %. A thin film of GRs with 68% transparency shows a surface resistance of 9.3 kΩ/sq. This is apparently the demonstration of anthracite coal as a source for electrically conductive graphenic materials.

Mots clés: Supercritical fluids; Bioimaging; Coal; Conductive graphenic ribbons; Emissive graphene oxide quantum dots

Domaines: Matériaux

Suchithra Padmajan Sasikala, Lucile Henry, Gulen Yesilbag Tonga, Kai Huang, Riddha Das, et al.. High Yield synthesis of aspect ratio controlled graphenic materials from anthracite coal in supercritical fluids. ACS Nano, 2016, 10 (5), pp.5293-5303. ⟨10.1021/acsnano.6b01298⟩. ⟨hal-01323318⟩