Preparation and characterization of surfactant-exfoliated graphene

Abstract

An anionic surfactant, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS), was introduced during the ultrasonication process for exfoliation of graphene. The surfactant plays the roles of exfoliator and stabilizer by binding to the graphene surface. The obtained modified graphene was characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and solid state 13 C CP/MAS NMR to analyze the binding between molecules, and by X-ray diffraction (XRD) to characterize the bulk structure. The resulting graphene exhibited good dispersion stability in both water and organic solvents.