Advantages of Electrochemical Exfoliation Method Over Conventional Methods

Graphene and its derivatives received considerable interest for various technological uses due to their exceptional characteristics such as mechanical strength, physical properties, and excellent electrical conductivities. The preparation of these important materials for a particular purpose is very important. Graphene synthesis can be performed by top-down (mechanical, and chemical exfoliation, and chemical synthesis) and bottom-up (chemical vapour deposition, pyrolysis, epitaxial growth, and arc discharge methods) approaches. The top-down approach is the division of large precursors into small particles while the bottom-up is the buildup of small carbon based materials to form graphene structure. The later method gives the product with good quality than the first one but needs well-developed operational facilities and systems and thus it is relatively expensive. However, electrochemical exfoliation as a top-down route is simple, fast, easy controllable and scalable to give the desired products under mild conditions. Thus, this chapter presents the advantage of electrochemical exfoliation over the conventional approaches (bottom-up and top-down). Based on the literature reports, the benefits and drawbacks of each graphene preparation method will be discussed and forwarded.