A mild, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective soft processing approach for the continuous synthesis of high-quality graphene nanosheets (GNSs) via glycine-bisulfate ionic complex assisted electrochemical exfoliation of graphite under ambient conditions has been presented by researchers from National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan. Their approach differs from previous reports where ionic-liquids, acids and molten salts as electrolytes are more commonly used.
A new exfoliation mechanism included in the group’s research demonstrates the formation of surface molecule nuclei, then reduction of ionic species forms large size (SO2)n gas bubbles, and in turn large forces among the graphite layers leading to effective exfoliation. This process successfully produces the GNS-AuNCs hybrid, which is an active catalyst for the reduction of carbonyl compounds such as ethyl benzoate.
