Efficient preparation of high-quality graphene via anodic and cathodic simultaneous electrochemical exfoliation under the assistance of microwave

Currently, the electrochemical exfoliation of graphene stands out as an efficient, scalable approach to access high-quality products, due to its simplicity, low cost, and environmental friendliness. Here we have proposed an electrochemical method for preparing graphene at both the anode and cathode simultaneously. Graphite was first subjected to ion intercalation sufficiently on the anode and cathode and then expanded ultrafast under the assistance of microwave irradiation. With plenty of ion intercalation and proper microwave irradiation, graphene would be successfully exfoliated. The as-prepared graphene flakes from anode and cathode behave few-layer feature (more than 80% ≤ 4 layers) and large sizes (about 94% are larger than 1 μm), possess low oxygen content and little defects (6.1% and 1.9% oxygen for anodic and cathodic graphene, respectively). In addition, the high yields in our method (the maximum yields for anode and cathode were 81% and 76%, respectively) and the recycling of electrolytes suggest that our method owns great potential for large-scale production and provide an important reference for the commercial preparation of green and low-cost graphene.