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Surface Tension Components Based Selection of Cosolvents for Efficient Liquid Phase Exfoliation of 2D Materials
Author(s) -
Shen Jianfeng,
Wu Jingjie,
Wang Man,
Dong Pei,
Xu Jingxuan,
Li Xiaoguang,
Zhang Xiang,
Yuan Junhua,
Wang Xifan,
Ye Mingxin,
Vajtai Robert,
Lou Jun,
Ajayan Pulickel M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201503834
Subject(s) - exfoliation joint , materials science , polymer , ultimate tensile strength , boiling , surface tension , context (archaeology) , chemical engineering , phase (matter) , composite material , acetone , graphene , chemistry , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , paleontology , physics , biology , engineering
A proper design of direct liquid phase exfoliation (LPE) for 2D materials as graphene, MoS 2 , WS 2 , h‐BN, Bi 2 Se 3 , MoSe 2 , SnS 2 , and TaS 2 with common cosolvents is carried out based on considering the polar and dispersive components of surface tensions of various cosolvents and 2D materials. It has been found that the exfoliation efficiency is enhanced by matching the ratio of surface tension components of cosolvents to that of the targeted 2D materials, based on which common cosolvents composed of IPA/water, THF/water, and acetone/water can be designed for sufficient LPE process. In this context, the library of low‐toxic and low‐cost solvents with low boiling points for LPE is infinitely enlarged when extending to common cosolvents. Polymer‐based composites reinforced with a series of different 2D materials are compared with each other. It is demonstrated that the incorporation of cosolvents‐exfoliated 2D materials can substantially improve the mechanical and thermal properties of polymer matrices. Typically, with the addition of 0.5 wt% of such 2D material as MoS 2 nanosheets, the tensile strength and Young's modulus increased up to 74.85% and 136.97%, respectively. The different enhancement effect of 2D materials is corresponded to the intrinsic properties and LPE capacity of 2D materials.