Preparation of graphene by jet cavitation

Despite its bright prospects, graphene faces challenges including issues concerning mass production. Here we present a totally green approach whereby common crystal graphite can be exfoliated into graphene sheets in aqueous solution by jet cavitation. This is possible mainly because the tensile stress caused by graphite–solution interfacial reflection of compressive waves acts an intensive 'suction disk' on the graphite flakes. We confirm the presence of graphene sheets by diverse characterizations. The graphene yield by our method is estimated as ∼ 4 wt%, which could potentially be improved by further processing. The method, of a mechanical nature, is powerful compared to the traditional low-throughput micromechanical cleavage. Our work here illustrates jet cavitation as a facile, low cost, timesaving and laborsaving route, which can potentially be scaled up to mass production of graphene.